


One Little Spark- Part 1

by WishExpedition23



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disney Kingdoms (Comics), FIGMENT Marvel comics
Genre: Based on the Characters from the Comics, Disney, Dreamfinder - Freeform, FIGMENT Comics, Gen, Journey Into Imagination - Freeform, Marvel Comics - Freeform, Multi, One Little Spark, Original Characters - Freeform, figment - Freeform, rachel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-14 19:32:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 237,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18058664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishExpedition23/pseuds/WishExpedition23
Summary: Dreamfinder and Figment, the famous explorers of imagination, are on the quest to search for the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus' missing geodesic sphere, aka Spaceship Earth. Upon the first encounter, the Dreamfinder falls in love and has enlisted Rachel, a 21-year-old girl with a secret traumatic past that has haunted her mind since childhood, to help him and Figment with their search, in hopes of helping her realize her potential as the "Dream Girl." They journey through many worlds with their imagination and face many dangers along the way as they learn the secrets of what Spaceship Earth is really supposed to be. But what they don't realize is that there are supposed villains who seek after Dreamfinder for his power and only Rachel holds the key as to why that is. Together with their imaginary friends at their side, the Dreamfinder and Rachel set off to find the geodesic sphere, sharing the power and values of imagination.*********************************************************************************************************************





	1. Chapter 1

One little spark, of inspiration

                                                          Is at the heart, of all creation.

                                                          Right at the start, of everything that’s new.

                                                          One little spark, lights up for you.

 

                                                                                  ~"One Little Spark," Robert and Richard Sherman

 

 

         The Song of the Imagineers was sung, filling the air with a faint whistling tune in the musical score of warm wind. The Disney’s D23 expo of 2015 is about to open its doors at the Anaheim Convention Hall, right across the street from both the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks, but not in a way it is usually opened. It was announced a week or two in advance that a very special guest would appear at the expo to greet the fans of the world’s most beloved industry. He is very well known as a character that came from Disney, but little did everyone know his existence was for real even before Disney became a business. Hundreds to thousands of people have come from across the world crowding and waiting at the doors for hours, almost two days even, for their special guest to arrive. The sound of the Song of the Imagineers rang from the skies and into people’s ears within the area. Whomever this guest is, he must be very well loved.

 

         In the midst of the crowd, Cast Members of Disney are finding it very difficult to pass through the crowd. Even Rachel, a one-year Cast Member who works part-time, failed to take a step inside the crowd to pick up a piece of trash. Everyone pushed and shoved each other hoping to get a great view of the expo’s opening and the special guest’s arrival. They did not notice Rachel coming around trying to do her job as she is ordered to do. She had been pushed away by the Disney fans no matter how hard she tried to get through. Finally, it came to a point where Rachel’s boss thought it was best to call her and a number of other Cast Members inside the convention center where they could keep an eye on fans and guests trying the sneak in, which thankfully there hasn’t been any. There isn’t much of a point to do that anyway since everyone is so focused on the special guest showing up in a few moments.

 

         The Song of the Imagineers grew louder as the crowd stood there, singing and humming the well-known tune and its lyrics. Suddenly, a couple of fans looked up at the sky, urging everyone else in the crowd to do the same. The crowd watched the sky from the surface ground as a tiny dot flew towards them shining in the sun’s heated light of day like a shining star in the night. It kept getting bigger the closer it came and the music sounded much louder than before. The crowd cheered as it did for the special guest was arriving! Rachel was able to sneak herself out of the other Cast Member’s view for just a brief moment to watch what was happening.

 

“Wow!” she whispered allowed at the sight of the special guest’s arrival.

 

         Up in the sky flew a flying machine of great wonder. Its image took the form of a steampunk airship from the 19th century. Pipes forged in silver and gold glistened as its peculiar, sparkling, purple steam spewed from the back area of the ship. The balloon was fully inflated with its color as blue as the daylit sky with gleaming golden bands strapped around it to keep the airship afloat. A large silver vacuum pipe sat underneath the ship as if it was ready to suck up anything in its path. A plaid airbag connected to the vacuum pipe at the back of the airship. Its pilot and riders, however, are perhaps the most peculiar than the ship itself. A creature sat on a small chair behind the pilot’s chair.

 

 

                                                   Two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow.

                                                   Horns of a steer, but a lovable fellow.

                                                   From head to tail, he’s royal purple pigment.

                                                   And there, voila!, you’ve got a Figment!

 

 

         Yes, it was Figment, the imaginary purple dragon and companion made up by the pilot of the ship himself. He is exactly as how the song described him: a dragon colored in royal purple with horns pointing backward and spikes both in orange, his eyes yellow with tiny black pupils, his wings also orange and small, a purple snout slightly larger in length than his head, and a smile on his face opened with excitement. The pilot sits on his seat, switching and pulling gears and pulleys in control of the Dream Machine, the true name of the airship in which he called. His hair, his full-chin beard, and large mustache are mixed in color with light brown and a hint of red, his gloves were whiter than ivory, his suit all blue with a magenta dress vest and white shirt underneath as well as a large white bow out front to make him look very deluxe and high class. His top hat was as black as his shoes with a magenta strap to match the dress vest. This man was a genius, an optimist, an inventor, an air pilot, a musician of sorts, and a “Creator and King of Dreams” as people saw him as. He was the Dreamfinder! He and Figment are known for their fantabulously spectacular adventures in alternate realms made by the Dreamfinder’s mind. Legend has it that on his first adventure with Figment they traveled to another realm, returned, and defeated a robot from destroying London, England. No one today remembers when this took place. That is if it actually happened. Since then, their good deeds and existence inspired everyone throughout the world to do the same. Even Walt Disney himself received a piece of inspiration from Figment and the Dreamfinder’s adventures.

 

         The crowd went nuts as the image of the Dream Machine came closer and closer to the convention hall! It soared over Disneyland and California Adventure on the way there. Fans and guests within those parks watched from below with their cameras, smartphones, and their mind’s eyes as the Dream Machine gracefully glided over them. Figment and the Dreamfinder could hear the cheering from down below. They both returned to the crazed fans some waves and smiles of appreciation. It does the duo good to be greatly known and greatly cherished, but it does them better to know that the many people in those crowds are inspired to be what they want or wanted to be with their imaginations. They heard some earlier remarks of kids saying, “Gosh, I want to be just like the Dreamfinder when I grow up!” and “Figment and the Dreamfinder are my inspirations to actually want to grow up so I can create things as he does!” Unbeknownst to both Figment and the crowd, the Dreamfinder let out a couple of tears from his eyes flooding and fogging his vision within the goggles he wore to fly the airship. He felt very blessed to be known for his hard work and achievements to help all of those who wish to let their imagination be set free.

 

         Nearing the ground, the Dreamfinder shifted gears and slowly lowered the Dream Machine in front of the convention hall’s ticket entrance. Fans screamed for joy as they ran toward Figment, the Dreamfinder and the airship ready to give their deepest appreciations with hugs and ask questions in return for autographs and take photographs. It’s a mighty big crowd we have here today, the Dreamfinder thought to himself, practically surprised at the amount. Thankfully, for the sake of their skins, the security guards came over to the Dream Machine and guarded the duo against being run over against the insanely desperate fans. The Dreamfinder jumped off his seat and instructed a trusted security man to drive the Dream Machine in carefully and use which of the controls to bring it in safely. A path cleared for him and Figment, who pretended to be an animatronic doll for the Dreamfinder, by the security guards. They strode through the sea of news reporters and screaming children and adults with their hands and their autograph books raised out. Happily, the Dreamfinder signed a couple of books and took selfies with his fans, or as the Dreamfinder calls it “an advanced digital self-portrait from a small lightbox.” As the Dreamfinder walked inside with Figment in hand, the crowd began singing One Little Spark, his theme song as well as the Imagineer’s, welcoming them to the expo. As the doors closed with Dreamfinder making his last wave for the crowd in thanks, he tripped.

 

         The Dreamfinder fell over a Cast Member by accident throwing Figment across where he scored a three-pointer basket shot in a trashcan. Some of the fans that stood outside the windowed doors of the convention center gasped and laughed at the sight. They saw how clumsy the Cast Member was putting herself underneath the Dreamfinder’s feet making him trip over. He landed on his stomach and chest with his long legs still on top of the Cast Member while she laid down on hers feeling guilty for her fault. The Dreamfinder turned his head towards the Cast Member’s face who felt too frightened to look at her “fallen” victim.

 

“Good gracious! I do beg your pardon, Madame, for dropping on you and not watching my step.” said the Dreamfinder, feeling that the fall was his fault. He lifted the Cast Member to her feet and returned the utensils she dropped during the fall. Not only is the Dreamfinder smart and imaginative, but he is also a gentleman. “Are you all right?” he asked.

 

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” said the Cast Member, trying to look away from the famous celebrity so her guilt wouldn’t show.

 

“Well, that is good! No hard feelings, may I ask?”

 

“N-N-No, not at all! It was entirely my fault. I’m just trying to keep things in order around here.”

 

“And I must thank you for that.” he smiled, making a small bow holding the rim of his hat with its goggles sitting there and glistening, “I do hope to see you around the expo. Come see me at the Disneyland Archives Pavilion or the Center Stage when you can. Good day!”

 

         The Dreamfinder reclaimed Figment, who had his horns covered in paper cups, from the trash and took off to their destined area at the Disneyland Archives Pavilion where the Dream Machine will be parked. Rachel, the Cast Member the Dreamfinder had tripped over, watched the man leave her. Despite the accident, he kindly apologized to her as if it was he who caused it. No one has ever treated her this way. She felt a slight warmness inside, which wasn’t exactly enough to make her day. She turned and watched the crowd trying to gnaw and press their hands onto the glass doors and hid a small shrug and a short moan with disgust. For the rest of the day, though she loves working for Disney in general, she has to pick up trash from unaware and non-careful guests and fanatics who drop them. Sadly, the kindness of the Dreamfinder did not last long, but alas, she has to toughen up and face what today brings.

 

         The Dreamfinder and Figment arrive at the Disneyland Archives Pavilion just as planned. They greeted many other Cast Members, security men, and foundation founders along the way receiving a warm welcome in return. The Dream Machine is placed just as it should be without a scratch and extra room within the perimeter, but before they were going to do anything else the Dreamfinder made one last touch. With a snap of his fingers and the power of his own imagination something amazing happened! In the back of the airship where the plaid airbag is, a large block of gold, silver and mahogany appeared moving the airbag to the side. What is it, you ask? I believe it is cabin space for the room. The people witnessing the moment are astonished! Nothing like this happens so often in today’s time, only in dreams. Still, the Dreamfinder has the power of his own imagination to make things happen almost constantly. Oh, is he ever so proud of it.

 

“Truly, Mr. Dreamfinder,” says an inspired bypassing security guard, “you are the modern Harry Houdini!”

 

“You are comparing me to Houdini, a man with the knowledge of many tricks?” the Dreamfinder asked, “Truly I must say to you, good sir is that while Houdini may have been a great magician in his time at best, his magic does not match the power of imagination made from the human mind. Was imagination a provider for his creative process in show business? Perhaps, very much so. What I make here, including Figment, all comes from me with hard work and a working brain just as everyone else in this world can do. And I wouldn’t change that in any other way even if I could. Do you understand that, good sir?”

 

“Yes, sir.” The guard said and left the Dreamfinder and Figment in good spirits.

 

“Everything seems to be in order, huh Dreamfinder?” said Figment, assuring himself that they are both ready for the event to begin.

 

“Indeed, Figment. All except for our guest.” The Dreamfinder replied back.

 

“Do you know who the guest is? I’m dying to know!”

 

“Nope, I don’t know yet.”

 

“What? Then what was the point of going through all this trouble? Not that I’m saying it was a waste of time, though.”

 

“One lucky person will be our guest of honor; to journey with us to the realms of imagination that will soon await them. And when he or she does, they will be too thrilled to say no.”

 

“No doubt about it, but how will we know who it’s going to be?”

 

“Oh we will know. Very soon.” the Dreamfinder answered, “We just have to keep a close eye out while we greet our admirers, demonstrate the performance and have a good time. You with me, Figment?”

 

“Yeah, Dreamfinder!” Figment exclaimed.

 

         Finally, the doors of the 2015 D23 expo have opened for the first day of its three-day run. Guests have flooded the entire convention building within a half hour! Everything that showed there are everything kids and the kids-at-heart would not have wanted to miss for the world from new video games, upcoming films and rides, pin collecting booths, stars who appeared in Disney films, TV shows, and people who knew Disney himself, and old relics used for the past films and rides existing and non-existing from the time Walt Disney was alive, ready to either be showcased or auctioned to a new lucky owner. Almost an eighth of the total amount of guests inside are lined up to see the Dreamfinder, Figment and the newly improved Dream Machine. Just about everybody is nuts about them because of their inspired role in the original “Journey to Imagination” ride that operated between 1983-1998 in EPCOT (the Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow), but what more is there about them that makes people feel this way? Is it their whimsical personality? Or is it their stories? No one knows the answer but the Dreamfinder and Figment, really, but soon someone else will.

 

         A demonstration of the Dreamfinder’s imagination turned to reality is arranged not far from the Disneyland Archives Pavilion. He and Figment have been escorted to the Center Stage where many performers were gathering backstage. In the past, the Dreamfinder invented the Mesmonic Converter, a helmet that converts dreams made from the human mind into reality so long as it was used with a clear mind and a well-focused concentration (Read Marvel Figment comics 1&2). But then an event happened at an Imagineering college in Florida where the Dreamfinder had to destroy the helmet and release the imagination for everyone to experience and enjoy. Therefore, with his mind stronger and purer than ever, the Dreamfinder can think of anything he desires with the snap of his fingers, even better.

 

         The crowds are closing in towards the front of the stage to see the master at work. Rachel, who is collecting trash, still, is not far from the stage. She watches the crowds cheering and screaming as they waited for the Dreamfinder and Figment to appear. The announcer steps up to the microphone. After making sure the microphone works he introduces the crowd to Dreamfinder at last. One Little Spark played as they entered. The sounds of the crowds echoed throughout the building as the Dreamfinder and Figment stepped onto the stage. Rachel clapped along with the crowd to give them support. When the instrumental song faded a little bit, the Dreamfinder waves his hands to get the crowd to settle down a little.

 

“Greetings, everyone!” the Dreamfinder exclaimed in the microphone, “I’m sure you all know who my flying friend and I are and-” The crowd’s cheerful outburst interrupted the Dreamfinder’s speech, making him blush and chuckle a bit. “Uh yes, well, thank you! Thank you all! Figment and I are so happy to join you on his wondrous occasion and share a great time as will be worth a great memory. Today, Figment and I will be showing you how the power of imagination is possible and how it can influence everywhere and everyone because imagination is something that belongs to all of us! Now then, shall we begin?”

 

         The crowd cheers with great excitement. The show is about to finally begin! Figment flies up to the ceiling as the Dreamfinder conjures up a giant slide extending through the crowd and all over the empty space of the main floor. Figment jumps onto the slide sliding down the path with everyone giving out high fives as he passes by. The slide zipped past Rachel as she was doing her job, nearly running her over. Luckily for Rachel, Figment didn’t hit her along the way. The slide ended back to the stage where the Dreamfinder imagined something else. He brilliantly comes up with a giant chocolate hill cascading its remnants and forming them into a life-sized solid chocolate figure of Figment. The crowd began laughing and cheering with delight at the sight. While picking up trash, even Rachel had to join in on the clapping and enjoyment.

 

“And now for our next stunt,” Figment exclaimed, “we will need a volunteer from the crowd.”

 

“That’s right, folks.” said the Dreamfinder, “The person we pick will get to step onto the stage with us and experience our next great performance. Now who shall we pick?”

 

         The crowd raised their hands, both hands to be precise. Figment and the Dreamfinder search for the one who will not only be the volunteer, but the special guest of honor they were talking amongst themselves earlier before the expo started. They look across the people who scream “ME! ME! PICK ME! PICK ME! ME!” until they actually found someone. The Dreamfinder saw ahead the same Cast Member he tripped over earlier this morning: Rachel. Why not? He saw the back of her head but never really got a chance to see her face. She is dressed in all white with black shoes and her light brown hair in a ponytail. When the Dreamfinder saw her face at last, something warm filled his heart. Somehow a woman filled with sadness inside her, which is unknown to him, makes a man’s eyes like his twinkle, showing a great fondness for her. He signaled Figment to where Rachel is and sent him to her. Figment got the message clearly and went for the girl immediately. He flew over the crowd as the people raised their hands hoping to be picked, but Figment had gone straight to Rachel. Rachel had been collecting more trash when Figment came to her. Surprised, she gasped at the sight of the little purple dragon.

 

“How about you, miss?” called the Dreamfinder all the way from the stage. As Rachel turned to that stage, he continued, “Would you like to volunteer?”

 

“I…no, I-I shouldn’t.” Rachel refrained.

 

“Aw, don’t be shy. I promise nothing bad will happen.”

 

“Come on, miss! Give it a try!” said Figment excitedly while pulling onto her arm.

 

“No please! I have to- WAIT!” Rachel shouted.

 

         Figment grabs onto Rachel’s arm and pulls her next to the Dreamfinder onstage. The crowd, though disappointed about not being picked, applauded the volunteer unaware of Rachel’s true feelings of being noticed. Rachel stiffens next to the Dreamfinder. Her hands quivered and her knees were about to shake. Stage fright took over her, she feared to be seen on stage by everyone before her.

 

“What is your name, miss?” the Dreamfinder asked.

 

         But Rachel could not budge. She caught a lump in her throat preventing her to speak. The pupils in her eyes shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. Sweat ran down her head. Her stomach had twisted in knots. She tried not to force a smile so much. Rachel just stood there, frightened and trapped. Both the Dreamfinder and Figment noticed her mood. They wondered if they pursued her too quickly. The Dreamfinder stepped up to her hoping he could calm her down a little. If not, then maybe he made a mistake about choosing her as both a volunteer and an honored guest. To give up on someone is the last thing he wanted to do.

 

“Miss?” the Dreamfinder said calmly, “What is your name?”

 

         Rachel looked at the Dreamfinder and Figment and then to the crowd. She has to make an answer now or she will end up humiliating herself.

 

“R-Rachel.” she answered in a slight stutter.

 

“Good to have you up here, Rachel! And where are you from?”

 

“L-Locally, in St. Peter’s Town. Not far from here.” Rachel is trying to keep her cool so she wouldn’t look so obvious. It’s half working.

 

“I see. Well Rachel, I’m sure your family back home will be very much surprised to see what your imagination can do when you help us with our next vision.”

 

“I very much doubt it.” she mumbled to herself.

 

“Now here’s what I want you to do.” the Dreamfinder instructed, “I want you to think of yourself doing something amazing, so incredible you could feel it in your bones.”

 

“That should be easy enough….if I could actually think of something to fits that description, which…I don’t.”

 

         The crowd chuckled. It’s hard to believe that even one person would not know how to imagine things so much even if they knew the definition of imagination. This is making Rachel very uncomfortable right now and both Figment and the Dreamfinder are beginning to see that for themselves.

 

“Are you so sure about that?” the Dreamfinder went on, “Didn’t you just hear me say that imagination is something that belongs to all of us? If I can imagine something, if everyone here can imagine something, I’m more than sure you can, too.”

 

“Yeah!” Figment chimed in, “You’ve just got to give yourself the willpower to try! Right everyone?”

 

“TRY! TRY! TRY! TRY! TRY! TRY!” the crowd shouted, hoping it would encourage Rachel to imagine something.

 

         But it doesn’t. Rachel is feeling even more frightened and trapped than before. She has no choice, however, but to do as she’s told. Rachel closed her eyes tightly and thought hard. The only thing she could think of right now is a way to fly from all of this. That being said, Rachel feels nothing underneath her. In fact, she felt her feet not touching anything.

 

         The crowd of guests and fans and Figment watched in awe, the Dreamfinder smiles at the effects Rachel is contributing upon herself.

 

 

 

                                                          Rachel is actually flying!

 

 

 

“Yes…yes Rachel, YES!” the Dreamfinder transfers from whispers to shouts, “That’s it! Keep going! You’re doing great! Let this all be seen! LET YOUR IMAGINATION BE SET FREE!”

 

“GO RACHEL! GO!” Figment cheered.

 

         Everyone in the crowd joined into the cheering, shouting praises of Rachel’s accomplishment. Rachel could hear everyone cheering for her, but what for?, she thought to herself. She opened her eyes slightly. When she did, she noticed something about her was wrong. The Dreamfinder, the dragon, and the people are all shrinking. No, nobody’s shrinking, and Rachel knows she is not turning into a giant because that is not what she imagined herself to be. She looks below at her feet and realizes she is not touching the ground anymore! She truly is flying! Everything the Dreamfinder and Figment said is true, but she is not ready to accept that just yet. Instead, Rachel felt the need to cry. No, not of happiness or excitement, but of great fear and confusion. Everything Rachel is feeling from the knots in the stomach to the shaking in her knees doubled- no, tripled in terror and chickenheartedness. Something is wrong with her. The Dreamfinder and Figment are probably the only ones who are able to notice Rachel’s dismay. For some reason, Rachel is not enthused by what they call “imagination.” To Rachel, it was more like devil’s work, supernatural tricks to mess with her mind. And the freaky part is that it is actually working.

 

“No…NO! Get back! GET ME DOWN!” Rachel cried, floating backwards towards one of the other exhibits.

 

“Only you can get yourself back down, Rachel!” the Dreamfinder called from the stage below her.

 

“LOOK OUT, BEHIND YOU!” Figment shouted.

 

         When Rachel turned, it was already too late. She bumped into a pole and tipped it over a pole onto one of the other booths. The booth is destroyed now. Rachel cupped her mouth with shock. She did not just destroy a small section of the expo, did she? Yes, apparently so. Her fear grew so intense she forgot about imagining herself flying. Because of that, she started falling to the ground. There is nothing underneath her to catch her fall, which made things even more frightening for her.

 

“Figment! Catch her before she hits the ground!” the Dreamfinder shouted.

 

“FIGMENT TO THE RESCUE!” Figment exclaimed.

 

         Figment zipped through the air just in time before Rachel was about to hit the hard carpeted floor. An inch more and Rachel would have gotten hurt. The dragon brought Rachel back to the stage next to the Dreamfinder safely.

 

“Uh, thank you all for coming to the show, ladies and gentlemen.” said the Dreamfinder, trying to rush the conclusion so he could get to Rachel quickly, “We will be returning in a couple of hours as explained in your schedules. Hope to see you all again real soon!”

 

         As concerned as they were for Rachel’s well being, the crowd left. Figment and the Dreamfinder tried to rush Rachel backstage, but Rachel pushed them both away and ran without looking back. It turns out that whether or not she took part in the act, she became so humiliated! Brokenhearted, the Dreamfinder and Figment watched her run like a frightened mouse. No one has ever been afraid of their use of imagination before not as far as they knew.

 

“Poor Rachel.” said Figment, “Now what has made her react this way?”

 

“Something you and I have both faced in the past, my friend:” the Dreamfinder replied gravely, “Fear and Doubt combined into one. We’ve come at a time more perfect than it could have been. She needs us now, Figment, and there’s no denying it.”

 

“Then what she needs is courage, Dreamfinder, to help her face whatever fear she has and overcome it like you did once.”

 

“Agreed. Figment, I want you to follow her and see where she goes. Let me know what happens to her next and I will come when the time is right.”

 

“Roger!” Figment saluted as if he’s in the army and flew off to follow Rachel’s trail.

 

“Forgive me, Rachel.” the Dreamfinder whispered to himself.

 

********************************************************************************************************

 

         Meanwhile, without knowing the purple dragon is following her, Rachel charged towards the convention doors ignoring her job as a custodial and accepting responsibility for her actions. Before she was able to make it out, a loud shout roared her name from the second floor. Rachel froze; she could no longer take another step. She shakily turned her head to the second floor where the last person she wanted to see right now was standing: her boss.

 

“Rachel! In the convention’s office…NOW!” the boss shouted.

 

         Rachel gulped. No one was letting her go today. Reluctantly, while everyone is watching, she rode the escalator up to the second floor and followed her boss to the main office room. Figment watched Rachel’s face tighten and quiver. Whatever Rachel is about to go through, it is not going to end pretty. The dragon carefully followed them to the main office room without being seen. When they arrived, the boss and Rachel entered the room where the owner of the convention hall waited for them while Figment hid behind the slightly unclosed door and listened to the conversation.

 

“Ms. Rachel.” the owner began, “Do you know why you are here?”

 

         Rachel knows why she is here, but she did not want to say it out loud. In fact, she feels much too depressed to even speak.

 

“Do you know what you have done?”

 

“Y-Yes, sir. I do.” Rachel replied at last.

 

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

 

“I-I-” she stuttered, “I take full responsibility for what has happened at the center stage.”

 

“I’m sure you do, but do you know how much money Disney has to pay both here and the foundation booth you destroyed. A lot! And what’s worse is that because you destroyed one of the booths in the main hall, someone could have gotten hurt!”

 

“This has gone too far, Miss Rachel!” the boss argued angrily, “Ever since you came into the business, you’ve flawed out in every social encounter you promised you would be. And then the next thing that happens, you end up leaving your job for a brief moment breaking something that costs the company even more money to repair, and then endangering lives in the process! This has gone way too far enough for even you to be forgiven. And we, as a company, are trying to keep a lawsuit out of reach and begin tainting out reputation just as Walt Disney himself tried to do in his lifetime. Do you not know how much money, time and effort it takes to plan and make everything we do work in order? Do you?!”

 

“Yes, I do! And I am really really really sorry! The last thing I want to mess up the place I love most!” Rachel said, hoping she would win back their sympathy, “As for the accident, I will go clean up my mess and pay all I have to fix it.”

 

“No, don’t even bother with that. You’re fired!” the boss from Disney exclaimed.

 

“No…” Rachel whispered to herself in shock. Figment, still listening to the argument, also felt the shock run through him. How is he going to explain this to the Dreamfinder?

 

“Now wait a minute, Todd-” the owner tried to reason with the boss, but got interrupted instead.

 

“No!” the boss shouted, “I’ve been giving this woman far too many chances over the past year. There is no room in the Disney Company for the kind of people like her to be working at.” He turned to Rachel and concluded, “Take the rest of the day to clear out your locker at the parks and return your uniform.

 

“Y-Yes sir.” Rachel reluctantly said, sighing in defeat.

 

         And so ends Rachel’s career as a Disney Cast Member. A custodian was not the best profession to have even with all the accommodations she had had while working, but it was the only way Rachel was able to feel close to the one thing she loved best. Now she has been shattered. She slowly walked out of the main office door, not noticing Figment’s presence, and headed straight back to Disneyland with gloom. As usual, Rachel has to use the Cast Member’s backstage route to get to the locker room. Her friends were there as they watched Rachel come in and tell them the bad news. Shocked and saddened, her friends gave her their sympathies, hoping something better will turn out later in the future. What future?, she thought to herself, the is no future for me anymore.

 

         Rachel’s intention was to work hard and move her way up to the ranks of the Imagineers while she went to college. Her parents at home thought her mind got lost in the clouds. They were never the best supporters nor were they even the best parents she could have. Everything Rachel thought of doing for the better good of her family and herself, they would always reject her putting her down and stomp on her, metaphorically, like a rodent in an unwanted place. Her whole life, Rachel lived in fear and doubt because of her parents and some other people squashing her confidence. Working at Disney is, or was her only sanctuary away from the real world. Now she has nothing. And to go back home to watch her parents telling her that they had told her so, that they told her that she is a failure in everything she does; how she is never fit to live in this world and that her birth was pointless naming her as God’s mistake. Ouch, that’s going a little too far. Rachel could not go home. She might as well just run away after she collects her things from her locker. Perhaps spend the night at one of the Disney hotels. Rachel received her final paycheck from the previous month of working and used it to pay for a one-night stay in the Disneyland Hotel.

 

         After Rachel is given a room key and the number she will be staying in, Figment returns to the expo where the Dreamfinder is getting ready for the next show to be performed in a few minutes. Figment had been gone for almost an hour. He didn’t have the time to tell the Dreamfinder yet about what had happened when was following the girl because of the next performance, so he waited for it. The second show was a success, probably a little better than the last one in the crowd’s opinions. The Dreamfinder hoped Rachel would return here and better see his intentions as both a performer and a genius, but Rachel did not show up. That left a small pain in his mind and heart. After the second show had finished, the two of them have been given break time for lunch and take a breather backstage from the convention hall. There they are able to talk in private.

 

“So what happened?” the Dreamfinder asked, “Is she okay?”

 

“ A lot less than okay, I’m afraid.” Figment replied.

 

         A silence came for a brief amount of seconds. Figment couldn’t bear to see his creator feel this way. In fact, even though he cares about everyone, this is the first time the Dreamfinder is feeling so strongly over one particular person; a girl even.

 

“Well?” he asked.

 

And then Figment replied, “Rachel has been fired from her job for destruction of property, leaving the post in her job, and endangering lives from the accident.”

 

        This shocked the Dreamfinder greatly. This was all his fault getting the poor girl fired. If anyone, it is really him who caused this mess. He and Figment quickly went over to the convention’s main office where both the building’s owner and Rachel’s former boss still stood and explained what had happened earlier today. He told them that he and Figment were the ones who encouraged Rachel to leave her job and join in on the fun and that he will take full responsibility for their actions and pay for the damages.

 

“That’s very kind of you to feel this way about her and take responsibility from your side of the problem,” said the Disney boss, “but Ms. Rachel had seen this coming. She almost hurt someone in the process of your show, which is definitely something Disney could not be forgiven for supposing someone did. She’s a hopeless person and doesn’t deserve to work for the parks so long as she reacts this way. And your performance was not the only time she’s felt so emotionally out of order. I still don’t understand how she was able to be hired in the first place.”

 

“No one is hopeless so long as I’m still standing,” the Dreamfinder defended, “Perhaps she got into this job because she believed she could do something good for herself and for everyone else that visit here. Isn’t there anything you can do to give her the job back?”

 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Dreamfinder. I have already filed the reports about her termination. What’s done is done. She won’t be working here ever again.”

 

         Feeling terrible for Rachel, the Dreamfinder took his leave with Figment following him behind. This was not supposed to happen. It shouldn’t have happened. But just like the Disney boss said, “What’s done is done.” Sadly, the Dreamfinder and Figment are going to have to make amends for their cause.

 

“We can’t let Rachel end like this, Figment.” said the Dreamfinder, “We have to get her out of this life.”

 

Figment nodded.

 

“Where is she now?”

 

“She’s staying at the Disneyland Hotel across the street and past what they call ‘Downtown Disney’ on the third floor.” Figment answered.

 

“Then we will have to go pay her a visit tonight.” the Dreamfinder planned, “And then we will leave the Earth with her with us when the expo is over for the night.”

 

“That sounds like a plan!” Figment cheered.


	2. Chapter 2

Nightfall is nearing, yet Rachel decides to go to bed early. She didn’t even bother going into one or both of two Disney parks that faced each other. Today turned out to be the worst day of her life. After the big fiasco with the Dreamfinder’s performance costing her her job, she just wants today to be over. She wanted all this to end; she’s wanted her own life to end somehow, one way or another. Maybe when she runs away, she might get lucky and be murdered quickly by some thug. But Rachel fears too much, death especially. What could she possibly do to end herself? Nothing really. Just live on and maybe get a fresh start alone. Where will she go? How will she get there? What’s the point really? Will it be for the sake of finding new places across the Earth and gain better experiences? Is there any hope for her? She doesn’t know. Perhaps it’s better this way. Better than to return home and take in more pain.

Rachel sleeps now, hoping for at least a sweet dream come into her mind. Who knows? Maybe an angel will come and take her away from this maddening world forever. There she would find such sweet relief. Nobody would be able to trouble her, hurt her or cause her stress anymore. She would be happy and free.

********************************************************************************************************

The expo ends its first day, but today was the only day the Dreamfinder and Figment would be present for the occasion. They made sure everything in the newly imagined cabin area of the Dream Machine was ready to go from the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the closets, the living room and the kitchen. Before the remodeling, there was only room for one man to fly the Dream Machine and one little dragon to perch behind him. With a new addition to come on board, they have to make more room for it.

“Is Rachel’s bedroom ready?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“Everything is all ship-shape, Dreamfinder.” Figment confirmed, “She’s going to love having her own room on an airship. We never really see those around here, do we?”

“ ‘Airplanes,’ maybe. But most certainly not the kind of ‘airship’ we have. Times have really changed. And now a bigger change will be happening tonight. …Figment?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you suppose Rachel will forgive me- us, for what we’ve done?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Dreamfinder. If Rachel does and decides to come with us, then great! But if not, then that’s on her.”

“I guess. At first I only wanted to see what she is capable of and if she truly is the one worthy of sharing an adventure with, but now that I think about myself and after watching all that happened this afternoon I might have felt…selfish.”

“Selfish? What about?”

“When Rachel thought of the idea of flying, I was so proud of her. I wanted to see if I was not the only person in this world who could actually imagine things to life at the top of my head. I became obsessed with Rachel’s success, urging her to continue. What she thought of doing that time she did it so flawlessly, so well done and so beautifully…so very beautifully. And yet, she wouldn’t even look at me both onstage and when I tripped over her this morning by accident. I believe that is because there is something sad inside her that’s contributing to her fear and doubt, something that is harming her imagination. And now I have just made it worse for her to the point of getting her fired from her job. How could I have done this, Figment? How could I not have foreseen that coming?”

“Well you’re not a fortuneteller, I’ll give you that.” Figment joked.

“Figment, I’m serious!” the Dreamfinder exclaimed, “That poor girl is out of a job because of us and even when we tried talking to her boss there is nothing we can do to help get it back for her. There is something wrong about her that is making her feel this way that I believe is not even her fault to begin with. I have a bad feeling that the way she felt today is part of her lifestyle.”

“Lifestyle? That sounds a little far-fetched, don’t you think? And besides, who wants to pick up trash for the rest of their life?”

“Figment, you’re not helping even though that is true.”

“All I’m saying, Dreamfinder, is that both you and Rachel need to let this go. So today was not a good day to face for her at least, but tomorrow is another new day. And when a new day comes, there’s always a chance something better might happen. If Rachel comes with us, I’m sure we will be doing her a huge favor.”

“Yeah…yeah, you’re right!” the Dreamfinder smiled. He hopped onto the seat of the Dream Machine and said, “No use in sulking over it. Now let’s get this baby in the air and go cheer our friend up. Shall we?”

“I’m with you, pal!” Figment agreed flying next to the Dreamfinder onto the Dream Machine and ready to fly.

The security guards made sure the cargo room is large enough for the Dream Machine to exit through. They wave their goodbyes to the famous dreamer and his dragon as the Dream Machine took off from the ground and away from the Anaheim Convention Hall. Figment and the Dreamfinder plan on not going too far yet. They have to pick someone up and that is Rachel, who meanwhile at the Disneyland Resort Hotel is trying her best to sleep away her troubles of today and accept tomorrow. The duo went to that hotel as quietly as possible so that they wouldn’t attract any attention. In secret, they parked the airship on top of the buildings and climbed down the stairs to the third floor. The room number Rachel is staying in, according to Figment from when he followed her, is #354. They go to the room with the correct number where it had a “Do Not Disturb” card on the doorknob. Obviously from the outside the door is locked and no ordinary key will open it. The Dreamfinder had to imagine the right kind of key to insert into the lock. From his experience, card keys were never used before in his time, only skeleton keys. The Dreamfinder had to imagine a special card key into reality to open the door. And so he did. With it, he carefully slipped the card into the slot and quietly opened to door. Figment flew inside first while the Dreamfinder closed the door behind him. The room is dark; no lights were turned on.

“She must be asleep.” Figment whispered.

“Let's find the bedroom.” the Dreamfinder whispered also.

It didn’t take long. There is a closed door in the hotel room. It must be the bedroom and in it, Rachel. Their newfound friend is sleeping inside as if waiting unknowingly for something to happen. Then the Dreamfinder imagined the bedroom door to be unlocked and it did unlock. He again opens the door quietly. They find Rachel sleeping in her bed soundly and tired with no blanket covering but laid upon. Perhaps she likes the cold air seeping onto her skin or maybe she’s used to sleeping without a blanket. She looked very peaceful to the Dreamfinder’s eyes; he didn’t want to wake her up like this, but he had to in some calmer way. He looked at her fondly once again. There is something in her that makes him want to smile all the time.

“Why are you staring at her like that?” Figment said in confusion.

The Dreamfinder had shortly been in the zone of not paying attention to anything else but one thing until Figment interrupted his concentration.

“Huh? Oh, nothing.” the Dreamfinder whispered. He then hovered over her, put aside a strand of her hair behind her ear, felt her cheek to give her warmth, and whispered her name hoping she will wake up. “Rachel…Rachel, my dear girl. Wake up, Rachel.”

Rachel can hear the Dreamfinder’s voice quietly speaking to her. She tries to open her heavy eyelids, rubbing them to gain visual of who is in her room and wonder how he, she, or they entered through a locked door. When Rachel had her eyes open wide enough she saw Figment and then the Dreamfinder sitting by her bedside. The Dreamfinder smiled happily to see those light brown eyes opened again.

“Hello, Rachel. Remember us?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“Oh…It-It’s you…” Rachel moaned, but when she recognized the Dreamfinder’s face, her tone grew louder and angrier. “IT’S YOU!”

Rachel jumped off the bed onto the Dreamfinder pinning him and slamming him to the ground defenseless! She had hoped she would never see this man again after what happened this afternoon, yet he and Figment had the nerve to come sneaking in and barging into her hotel room like they could not get enough of her feeling what she felt before. Her fists grabbed his coat and then his neck as she sat on top of him so he wouldn’t budge. Figment, surprised to see Rachel this way, attempted to pull Rachel away from his creator but failed. He ended up being thrown into the closet door by Rachel’s forceful hand. The Dreamfinder, also surprised, though trying his best to get out of Rachel’s grip lay there scaredly. Not once in his life had he ever encountered a woman strong enough to keep him down to the ground. He sees Rachel’s face wrinkled, her teeth clenched and her eyes burning with seething fire as it pierced his own.

“CURSE YOU!” Rachel shouted, “CURSE YOU AND YOUR DEVILRY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME TODAY! YOU ARE JUST ABOUT HALF RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF THIS YET YOU COST ME EVERYTHING I ONCE HAD! CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU!”

“Devilry?!” Figment shouted in shock.

“Y-Yes, I know!” the Dreamfinder choked, “Figment and I, w-we both know what we did and heard you got fired and-"

“THEN YOU SPIED ON ME?!” Rachel screamed, choking the Dreamfinder.

"Yes! Well, no. Sort of. Not really. Kind of. We-We…heard you got fired after the performance and we are really really…really sorry this had happened to you. It...It was never our intention to do it whatsoever. And I will say this, what we do is not…ngh, devilry. It-It’s a natural gift of the mind. Please, please forgive us!”

“I said the same thing to my boss, but did he ever forgive me in return? NO! What happened today, in his words, was unforgivable. WHY SHOULD I FORGIVE YOU IN RETURN IF I HADN’T GOT ANY MYSELF? TELL ME!”

“Rachel, let go of him! We don’t mean any more harm!” Figment shouted, again trying to pull her away from the Dreamfinder.

“Ok-Okay, R-Rachel! Please listen to m-me.” the Dreamfinder pleaded, “We did not…mean for this to happen. If you…Agh!- if you let go of me, I’m sure we can work this all out! Please! I hate to see you in that manner.”

“Let us talk you, Rachel!” Figment encouraged, “It’s very important!”

“Please, Rachel. Restrain yourself and listen to us. Please…”

Rachel looked at the purple dragon and then back at the Dreamfinder. She can see the fear in his eyes proving that she has his attention, but to give them her attention would mean both defeat and surrender to her. Then again, Rachel is a bit curious as to why and how the Dreamfinder and Figment snuck their way to her room in the first place. She loosened her grip and jumped off the poor beaten man, who coughed and gasped aloud for air.

“Fine.” she said reluctantly, “You’ve got five minutes. And make it quick.”

“All right. Well…” the Dreamfinder began still gasping for breath, “to start off, I come from London, England where I went to school at the Scientifica-Lucidus Academy and later brought Figment to life.”

“Scien-whatica luscious?” Rachel pronounced incorrectly.

“Scientifica-Lucidus.” the Dreamfinder chuckled, “It’s a school where I learned to build advanced technology. Very good school, I must say if you are interested in attending. Recently, Figment and I arrived at the Scientifica-Lucidus Academy campus in a secluded area in Orlando, Florida. An old friend of ours, Chairman Illocrant, to avoid a lawsuit and proceed on experimenting future technologies in peace to help make the world a better place, bought the area it resides in now. There we were asked to demonstrate an invention I had built at the beginning of my journey through imagination, but the demonstration did not turn out the way we wanted it to be. Right outside the building there was a geodesic sphere that, according to the school, appeared out of nowhere. Once in a while it disappears and then appears again at random times. When the demonstration had failed, the geodesic sphere disappeared again, this time for good. What happened right after that is a long story. The point of it is that since it’s still gone, we agreed to go find the geodesic sphere and somehow bring it back to the academy so they could study it more.”

“I other words,” Figment concluded while flying a backwards summersault, “We are going on another journey to imagination!”

“Okay…now does any of this revolve around me, too, or are you just here to show pity over me?” Rachel asked.

“Oh no, Rachel! You are very much involved in this now.” the Dreamfinder exclaimed, “You may not know this, but you and I have so much in common. I was able to see that when I tripped over you this morning, again I apologize for that, and then at the performance at the center stage.”

“Oh, do tell me then. What is it I have that you do as well? AND DON’T SAY IT’S IMAGINATION!”

“……….” the Dreamfinder paused.

“……….” Rachel didn’t say another word, but waited for an answer.

“………Uhhhhh….I beg your pardon, Rachel, but yes it is imagination.” the Dreamfinder finally replied with a guilty smirk.

“Damn it.” Rachel slapped her hand on her face.

“But I’m sure there is more than that in you. From what we see, you just don’t know it yet.”

“Yeah Rachel! What you need is some help.” Figment said, “And me and Dreamfinder are just the people to turn to.”

Rachel sighed, “Look, I appreciate your concern in all, but not only do I not understand what all of this has to do with me, I am more than completely sure I can take care of myself.”

“You sure looked like you were able to take care of yourself when you started flying and then ran away in tears.”

“Figment!” the Dreamfinder barked.

“You shut it, dragon! I was scared. Nothing like this happens in today’s time. That is, apparently, until you two came along.”

“Okay, number one: you don’t talk to my friend that way. That’s very disrespectful!” the Dreamfinder ordered Rachel, “And second, you’re right. Things like what we do don’t often happen around here these days. If it makes you feel any better, I never thought stuff this like could happen until I brought Figment to life and began my adventure. Now as for your involvement, after we watched the geodesic sphere disappear the last time we were there, we figured finding it again is going to take a lot more than my own imagination alone. We need a reinforcement.”

“So why not enlist an army?”

“Well there’s an idea!” said Figment, “Except we don’t have much room on the Dream Machine to carry so many people.”

“Figment is right, Rachel.” the Dreamfinder continued, “We need someone with a great amount of imagination and courage to join us on this adventure…and that’s you.”

“Plus, we’re lonely. Number three is always a good charm.”

“Well I hate to disappoint you two, but I’m anything but that.” Rachel stated. “Therefore, I can’t go. And even if I do want to go, I have A. parents who are waiting for me to come home so they could stick their nose at my face saying how big of a failure I am and B. despite your fame, I hardly know you. For all I know, you two would end up kidnapping me.”

“Kidnap?" Dreamfinder exclaimed in shock. "That is most certainly not our intention. That’s a terrible thing to do!” 

“We would never do that, Rachel!” Figment argued.

“Okay, Okay! So you don’t kidnap people. That’s fine!” Rachel held back, “Still, whether or not you would do it, where exactly would we go and how far is it?”

“In the different realms of imagination! And it can be very far away or so close to home. No one knows.”

“So will you come with us then?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“Hmmm…let me think about it for a moment.” Rachel answered, “Wait for me in the living room and I’ll give you an answer when I’m ready.”

“You won’t run away this time, will you?”

“No, not this time. I’m too tired to run away after today anyway. Let me be alone.”

“Let’s go, Figment.”

The Dreamfinder and Figment exit Rachel’s bedroom. She locked the door so she wouldn’t be interrupted. The duo makes themselves comfortable in the living room waiting and hoping for the answer they want to hear. Inside, Rachel thinks hard about this decision. Far away. Far away where her family will never follow her and give her a hard time. Should she go with Figment and the Dreamfinder on an adventure to some made-up world that would only come once in a blue moon, practically never? Or should she return home unnoticed by her parents, pack her things and run away never to return nor knowing what will happen later? It’s difficult to face against familiar relationships that don’t show much support despite your best intentions and can’t make up their minds. Then again, it’s hard to believe some strangers who claim to have gone to some imaginary world as if they just jumped off a page from a children’s storybook and took a job at the Disney parks as a character. Another question would be that suppose she decides to go with Figment and the Dreamfinder, is there a possible chance of coming back home? The decision is tough.

Meanwhile in the living room, Figment flies all over the ceiling trying to entertain himself and keep boredom out the way. The Dreamfinder, however, had his head down almost as if napping. He feels there’s another reason why to bring Rachel along on this quest other than their mission to find the geodesic sphere. Whatever it is, he does not know yet.

After a half hour of waiting and thinking, Rachel comes out of her room. She faces the Dreamfinder and Figment while taking a deep breath. Her decision is made. The duo sees Rachel come outside. They instantly rise from their seat ready to hear what she will say.

“So?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“…….” Rachel didn’t say anything yet. The silence was beginning to feel unpleasant until she finally spoke, “I will go with you.”

“HOORAY!” Figment cheered, flying up to her for a hug.

“Splendid!” the Dreamfinder exclaimed, “We will leave right now!”

“Hold on! I need to do something first.” Rachel informed, “Have either of you got paper and a pencil?”

The Dreamfinder looks into his hat and pulls out a sheet of paper and a pen. “Will this do?” he asked.

“Definitely.” She took the paper and pen, sat at the dining room table and started writing. It took about five minutes to write. Neither Figment nor the Dreamfinder knows what she is writing about or whom she is writing to. It read:

Dearest friends, Abby, Denny, and Kevin,

If you are reading this note, then you should know by now that this is the last I will be writing to you. I would have texted to you all about this, but I didn't wanted anyone else to read this and track down my location. Plus, it would have taken me a long-ass time to text the whole thing.

I’m sure Kevin knows that I have just been fired from my job for reasons even you wouldn’t believe. Because of this I am going away; I’m leaving. Do not worry, I will be taken well cared for by some new friends whom and where you also wouldn’t believe I’m going with. Trust me on this I’m having a hard time believing it as well, but what choice do I really have? None of my family members knows I’m leaving, so I prefer you and your parents don’t tell them anything. You know how they are with me, I really don’t need to draw a picture of it for you. But if you must, make sure you tell them I have chosen to leave on my own free will. They wanted me to leave someday, so that's what I'm doing. If they don’t approve, which would be unlikely, then that’s their problem.

Anyways, I do not know how long I will be gone for or if I should ever return. And if I do, it will only be because I want to see all you three. Do not bother texting or calling me in any way for I will have either deactivated or destroyed my iPhone. And there is no point in calling the police either. They’ll never be able to find me nor know who took me away from this maddening world (maddening in my own perspective). Anything official you think of trying to find me with will do you no good other than the beings I will be traveling with. Hopefully, this trip will do me good one way or another. Still, if you are wondering whom I am going with I’ll give you a hint. Look up the original “Journey to Imagination” ride from EPCOT and you get your answer. When you figure it out, I want you all to destroy this letter when you finish reading it. Burn it, shred it, black it out, however you manage it do what you need to do. Just don’t let anyone see it or know it.

In case I don’t come back, I want you all to know that you three are my very best friends and I’ve enjoyed every moment I have spent with you from our days in junior and high school to our hangouts at Disneyland and other places and our birthdays and holiday events. Please do not cry for me but think happy thoughts (unless you cry tears of joy. HAHA! XD) for my decision is final. You have all been there for me through thick and thin and I shall never forget your kindness and friendship. You will all be in my memories as I start in this new life day in and day out. I love you all and that will never change. Maybe someday and somehow I’ll be able to write to you about what’s happening from where I am. Farewell to you all forever or if until we shall meet again.

Your dear friend,

Rachel

“Is it possible for you to imagine yourself making two more copies of this?” Rachel asked the Dreamfinder.

“I’m not sure,” said the Dreamfinder, “but I think Figment can do something about that.”

“Righto!” Figment agreed, “I can transform into anything you can imagine. Tell me and I’ll do it!”

“Can you change into a copy machine?” she asked.

“Hmmm…not sure exactly what that is, but what the heck? I like a good challenge!”

Figment tries his hardest to change into a copy machine based on Rachel’s description. Successfully, he’s a copy machine now. Rachel places the letter inside on the glass top, sets the controls for two copies, and prints them out.

“Hey, that tickles!” Figment giggles.

“Unbelievable!” the Dreamfinder said in astonishment, “How is this technology accomplished?”

“Uhhhh…I guess it’s like a camera that takes multiple pictures based on the controls you set and how many you want. That’s really all I can say since I’m no mechanic. Have you even…seen a copy machine before?”

Figment and the Dreamfinder look to each other and said, “Nope. Never.”

“Though it is a fascinating piece of machinery!” the Dreamfinder.

“Right, okay.” Rachel drawls, “Now all I need are three envelopes. I’ve already got stamps and their addresses.”

The Dreamfinder gives Rachel the three envelopes that also came from his hat as if my magic. While Rachel writes down the addresses from her iPhone to the envelopes, the Dreamfinder reads one of the copies of the letter Rachel wrote. He finds it very touching and well worded, but there is something he doesn’t understand about it.

“You’re not going to tell your family that you’re leaving with us? Why?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“No one will miss me when I’m gone.” she replied, “Let’s just say that neither one of us between me and my parents don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with one another; we don’t really have the best relationship. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Why not?”

“Trust me, dude, you do not want to know.”

“If you say so.”

“Now we just need to find the nearest mailbox to put them in and then I’ll be ready to go.”

“No problem!” Figment said. He then turns himself into a mailbox, takes Rachel’s letters, and sticks them into the mail slot. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-KA-BING!” he exclaimed, “Now all of your letters will be sent straight to your friend’s houses by the time we leave.”

“HA! Friendly and handy!” the Dreamfinder laughed.

“…Okay then.” Rachel said, not really knowing how that just happened. “So where did you park?

“Up on the roof.”

“How did you two get down here when those doors are locked? Wait never mind! I know what you’re going to say-”

“IMAGINATION!” Figment cheered with a summersault.

She sighed, “Walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” The Dreamfinder chuckled.

“Fine, whatever you say. Let’s go before I start falling asleep again. I’m tired.”

“Right this way, Miss Rachel!” Figment exclaimed.

The Dreamfinder and Figment took Rachel all the way to the top of the building where the Dream Machine is parked. Thankfully, no one noticed it there when they left to get the girl. The balloon was had deflated for the time being until they would come back with their new guest of honor. Amazed at the design, its detail and its size, Rachel’s jaw opened. Either these guys have come from an actual steampunk time or that the Dreamfinder is incredibly smart and somehow made the airship work smoothly.

“You might as well refill the fuel tank on this thing before we go.” Rachel pointed out. “There is a nearby gas station around the corner we can go to.”

“Gas station, Rachel?” the Dreamfinder said in confusion.

“Yeah, to make the airship work. Unless you actually use solar power.”

“Um…no, no we don’t.”

“Coal?”

“Nope.” said Figment.

“Steam?”

“Try again.” The Dreamfinder chuckled.

“Nuclear? Electricity? Anything? It can’t be just air.”

“Give up?”

“No, but you might as well tell me.”

“Dream Power!” he and Figment said together.

“…Okay, WHERE do you come from really?” Rachel asked.

“We told you already: London.” Figment reminded. 

“What they come up with these days.” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“All aboard!” the Dreamfinder exclaimed.

Figment flies aboard the Dream Machine before the Dreamfinder and Rachel and sits onto his personal seat behind the pilot’s. The Dreamfinder steps onto the ship and just like a gentleman, he holds out his hand for Rachel to take it and be pulled into the ship with him. She has to give him credit, though, other than being a genius at his work. Hardly any man holds out their hand for a woman anymore. Open a car door for a woman, maybe, but hardly an opened hand. Rachel took the Dreamfinder’s hand and steps up onto the airship with them. Her hand is cold, the Dreamfinder thought to himself. Must be because she was sleeping without a blanket. Perhaps his hand clothed in his ivory white glove will seep warmth into her flesh.

“Welcome aboard the Dream Machine, Miss Rachel.” said the Dreamfinder in delight.

“Thanks, but you can just call me Rachel, if that’s all right with you.” Rachel insisted.

“Very well. If that is what you wish. Now in order for the Dream Machine to fly, you and I need to-”

“Use our imaginations to think of every possibility possible because necessity really is the mother of invention.” Rachel finished.

The Dreamfinder paused for a second and said, “Very good.”

“Wow! She catches on quick!” Figment laughed.

“Sir, just because we’ve never met before in person doesn’t mean I’ve never heard of you. I’ve seen films and your once-in-a-while appearances from across the world. You’re literally that famous to our present generations.”

“Yet you didn’t seem so enthused when you first saw us this morning.”

“That’s because I never had much of a fondness for you for some reason. Plus, I had to work otherwise I’d get fired, which has already happened.”

“If you’re referring to that ‘Journey to Imagination’ ride in that other part of Florida that the Disney Company had made in the 1980s, we were barely involved. All we did was live out through our adventure in London and the first imaginative realm we entered.”

“Yeah, we lived the adventure, they read about us, and then they got inspired to inspire more people to use their imagination.” said Figment, “That’s how imagination usually revolves.”

The Dreamfinder took his seat and set the controls to operate the Dream Machine. The controls look pretty complex for someone who had no experience in using them, but to a person who does it’s like eating a piece of cake. Rachel watches the Dreamfinder do this, feeling puzzled mixed in with her tired mind. She has no idea what he’s doing to make this ship afloat. Her eyes are beginning to close by themselves as she watches the Dreamfinder readying the ship.

“All right, Rachel, you ready to start dreaming?” the Dreamfinder said to Rachel, but she didn’t say anything. “Rachel?” The Dreamfinder finds Rachel behind him leaning onto his chair sleeping. There is no way Rachel can keep her eyes open any longer after what happened today. Today had really worn her down.

“Hey Rachel! Wake up! You’re going to miss the take-off!” Figment shouted trying to shake her awake.

“No Figment!” he hushed, “Let her sleep. She’s had a rough day.” And then he chuckles, “I think our guest would rather do her dreaming in bed. What do you think, Figment?”

“It does look that way.”

“All right, help me get her to her room.”

“Got it!”

The Dreamfinder and Figment lift Rachel up from the pilot’s seat and tried not to drag her to her new bedroom. Thanks to the new cabin space, the three of them can fly through the skies while living in the comforts of home. Inside the cabin space is a hallway, each with the different aspects of living. One room is a kitchen, a couple of them are separate bedroom with their own bathrooms and closets, a lounging study room, and a room for laundry. They find Rachel’s new room and bring her inside. The bedroom is not decorated as much. All there is in there are a window, a desk and chair, the closet and bathroom doors, and a bed with blankets. The Dreamfinder figured Rachel could use her imagination to design her own room. They bring her to bed and covered her with the blankets, trying their best to make her feel comfortable. It’s likely in Rachel’s state that she could feel nothing to either feel pain or comfort. She remained where she was until tomorrow morning. 

“There. Sleeping like a baby.” Figment beamed.

“Yes. Yes she is.” The Dreamfinder said calmly looking at Rachel in her peaceful state. “Figment, can you make sure the steam pipes are tightened enough? I’ll be out there in a second.”

“Sure, Dreamfinder.”

Figment leaves the bedroom to do as he was asked leaving the Dreamfinder behind with Rachel with him. The Dreamfinder looks at Rachel fondly once again. He believes in his heart and mind that this is the one person who can really help him on his quest to find the geodesic sphere, but there is something more in her that captures his attention. After Rachel’s performance with her “flying trick,” he sensed a great power in her; a power that might be equal to his own or maybe more even. This has to be the one, I know it, he thought to himself. The Dreamfinder watched her as she sleeps the rest of the night away regaining her energy from beating him up earlier. Is there something else about this woman that make his heart flutter? If there is, then what is it? Still, he intends to treat Rachel with the utmost respect and kindness he can offer, as is his nature. He pets her head and feels her cheek; soft and smooth like a polished stone. 

“Goodnight, Rachel.” he whispers, leaning down to Rachel and softly kisses her forehead, “Sweet dreams, my little dreamer. Dream big.” He then imagines a music box to appear in his hands. With a few cranks on the key, the sweetest music a person can hear plays for the sleeping girl; a song the Dreamfinder is most familiar with.

And with that, the Dreamfinder got up and left Rachel at peace for the night with the candlelight doused. He takes one last peek at her as he was closes the bedroom door behind him. He cannot help but keep smiling at her, but what for? Perhaps a personal feeling ignited a spark inside him. Whatever it is, he’s glad Rachel is here.

Closing the door, the Dreamfinder returns to his seat at the front of the airship where Figment came in and announced that the steam pipes are good to go. The Dreamfinder, with his eyes closed along with Rachel’s, begins to imagine the greatest possibilities he can imagine. In an instant, the dream power empowers the Dream Machine to full operation. He shifts his gears and switches to inflate the balloon and take off from the hotel building. They fly the airship very high as far up as the clouds as if it were ascending to the surface of an ocean sailing where the wind would blow them. With his and Rachel's dream power combined, a portal opens for the Dream Machine to enter. They went through and disappeared out of sight.

Rachel, inside her bed, does not take any notice as to what is happening. She figures what is happening now is all a dream. When she wakes up, she will be back home being yelled at and humiliated by her family for getting fired from her job and be at the mercy of her three best friends for kindness, friendship, and support. But that is not the case in both Figment and the Dreamfinder’s eyes.

 

Their journey to the realms of imagination is about to begin.


	3. Chapter 3

Inside the portal of the imaginative realms bore stars of blue rapidly sparkling past the Dream Machine in a limitless space of black and smeared purple violet. Its tunnel zipped by as if time were passing by in light speed. The Dreamfinder and Figment have their guest with them and the journey to the imaginary worlds has begun. As the Dreamfinder drives the Dream Machine through the portal, the purple dragon took out a butterfly net and attempted to catch some of those blue stars as if they were actual butterflies.

“Figment! If you collect more than enough blue stars, would you mind if I took some?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“Not at all, Dreamfinder!” Figment replied, “What do you need them for?”

“I’m thinking of making a welcoming present for Rachel.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I’m not sure yet, but I do want it to be good.”

“Then I’ll do my best to catch enough for you.”

“Thanks, Figment.”

Figment takes out an extra butterfly net from behind his back, swinging it to and fro to catch as many blue stars as he can for the Dreamfinder use. They sparkle and twinkle like glitter on black construction paper in the sunlight. When one of those stars pass by your ears you can hear a tingling sound ringing. Ring-a-ting-ting-ting, they chime, ting-a-ring-ring-ring. What are these blue stars passing by the Dream Machine is they stride on to continual nothingness? There is no specific name to it, but what they are usually known for are the future of imagination, tiny little remnants of light that are soon destined to become soon-to-be imaginations of the human mind or material for creating creations. Stars that become born in the imagination will turn to pure light or pure darkness, sweet dreams or terrible nightmares. There is an entire universe of them as far as Figment and the Dreamfinder are concerned and that’s a good thing. So long as there are so many of them, it means that the world is inspired to imagine and keep imagining. What a person would yearn to see such a sight as this.

Up ahead, there is a brighter light, the ending gateway from the portal to world of imagination. Full speed ahead! The Dreamfinder pushes the two main switches forward making the Dream Machine fly faster before the portal closes on them and be trapped inside until the next portal opens. With this much speed, the stars pass by much quicker as if it were hyperspace from Star Wars. Just in time, the Dream Machine reaches out of the portal safely in one piece.

“Made it!” the Dreamfinder exclaimed, “Figment, how many stars did you catch?”

“Enough to fill two buckets with, Dreamfinder!” said Figment holding up both butterfly nets filled with tiny blue stars, “One for you and one for me!”

“Splendid! Now do me a favor: fly over to the back of the airship and catch whatever comes out of the vacuum!”

“You got it!”

Figment flies over to the airbag where the other end of the vacuum spills out new and processed objects. The Dreamfinder grabs a handful of the tiny blue stars and casts them into the front of the vacuum pipe. When anything is put into that vacuum no matter what the material may be, it always makes either a chiming or a funny sound as it is being processed with dream power. The Dreamfinder has had an idea in mind on what to make Rachel out of these blue stars and soon it will be made from mind to matter, as does the nature of imagination. The pipe processes the blue stars as it’s supposed to and out they come on Figment’s side…nothing big, nothing too small: a tiny blue gem necklace with a strong silver chain emanated out of the vacuum. Figment catches the necklace and flies back to the Dreamfinder with it.

“This is pretty!” said Figment holding it up for the Dreamfinder to see.

“It’s perfect! It’s beautifully perfect!” said the Dreamfinder in great delight taking the necklace kindly from Figment’s hand. “Hmm…there’s no cracks on it. That’s good. And the chain is strong, too. That’s also good. Now to keep it safe in this box until Rachel wakes up.”

“You want me to go check and see if she wakes up?”

“No, no. Unless she takes still sleeps by noon, let her wake up on her own. Though I hate to admit she’s missing out on this wonderful view out here below us.”

“Okey-dokey!”

Figment returns to his personal chair behind the Dreamfinder’s as they watch the clouds pass by them, fluffy as cotton candy. In fact…

********************************************************************************************************

The morning light shines through Rachel’s bedroom window and onto her eyes, blinding her. She didn’t want to wake up, so says her mind, but her body says she has to. It’s 9:13 in the morning. At least, that’s what her time zone’s time would be on Earth. Now that she, the Dreamfinder, and Figment are in a different realm, there is no telling what time it really is. She yawned big and stretched. What happened last night with the Dreamfinder and Figment she figured it was all just a dream. She would be back home in her lower bunk bed with her desk beside her and a trash bin in between. From her bed back home, the desk and bin are an easy reach. It is the same case scenario for her new bedroom in her new home. As Rachel opens her eyes, she realizes that she is not in the same place she expects to be. Instead of the purple and pink room she has been meaning to repaint for some time, this new room is in brown and mahogany red. The closet is not in the right place and there has never been a window over her bedside. Something is wrong, she thought to herself, and she is right. Rachel looked out the window over her bed and noticed that what should be a plastered concrete wall is actually a light blue sky with pink, sugary, fluffy clouds. She could not understand how this is all possible. But then she remembered meeting Figment and the Dreamfinder last night at the hotel.

“No, it can’t be.” she gasped.

She turned away from the window and spotted a small stack of clothes, a pair of shoes and goggles with a note attached to them sitting on the desk. Rachel took the note and it said:

 

**Dear Rachel,**

**These clothes should start you off on**   
**this journey to protect and warm you up**   
**from the cold air outside. Hope it fits you well.**   
**We’ll be outside at the fore of the Dream Machine.**

**D.F. + F**

 

That did it; that solved her mystery. What happened last night is all true. She really is in the Dream Machine with Figment and the Dreamfinder! And what is a fore anyway? Whatever it means, she didn’t care at the moment. She cannot believe this is happening, taking up an offer from a man in a ridiculous outfit and a purple, steer-horned dragon. What was she thinking? Rachel wanted to beat the heck out of those two for getting her involved, but then she thought it to be pointless. For instance, she already did that to the Dreamfinder the night before. And she did agree to go along with them as they asked her to. Well, whether or not she was tired, she asked for it; she wanted to go along with this trick and this is what she got. As Hernando Cortés once said during his voyages to the New World, “Burn the boats,” which means, “There is no turning back.” It makes her think that he might as well have kept an extra boat just in case. There is no way out now, so she is stuck.

Rachel took the clothes to the closet and changed. She came out in a loose sand-colored long-sleeved shirt, baggy beige pants, a mahogany red sleeveless jacket, golden forged protective goggles over her eyes, and black boots. Finally, the girl left the bedroom, into the hallway, and out to the right side of the airship. There is where Rachel truly enters a whole new world unlike any other.

********************************************************************************************************

The skies surround the Dream Machine with its daylight and peculiar pink clouds. The only time there could be pink clouds during the day would have to be at sunset, not in broad daylight. There is something sweet about them that it looks pretty edible. Rachel reached out to the cloud closest to the airship and grabbed a piece of it. Normally, a cloud would just slip through a person’s hand as it passes by, but not this one. Rachel was able to grab a small chunk of it. She looks at it, smells it, and then tastes it.

“Cotton candy?” Rachel asked herself. She took another bite of the piece and said, “Yes, most definitely!”

She looks below to the surface ground and she sees is an actual candy wonderland! Odd. Last night, Rachel tried to have some sweet dreams and she thought of candy. In this world, Rachel’s imagination has come to life! And this never happens. Rachel has not believed anything is possible since she was a little girl living with her parents. This right here is beyond unbelievable.

Eating the rest of the cotton candy she caught Rachel searched the airship for Figment and the Dreamfinder. Along the way, she took the time to observe the steam pipes and everything connected to them. All of the gears and pistons are exposed for all to see as well as its pipes and balloons. Before the Dreamfinder added the cabin space, there was no walkway on the sides of the Dream Machine. Now there is a walkway on both sides as well as rails to keep everyone from falling off. Putting aside the fact that this new realm if all made of candy, the view from the Dream Machine is phenomenal! If you’ve seen birds fly over you, then you would know it would be hard to believe yourself flying over those birds while riding on the Dream Machine. A whole flock of white birds, about fifty of them, flew underneath the airship and then receded to another direction. This never ever happens to Rachel. She feels glad that it did and probably will keep going as the journey stretches on.

Finally, Rachel finds the Dreamfinder and Figment at the “fore” of the airship, but she didn’t say anything. It is crazy to think that someone like Rachel right now would come to know the Dreamfinder, I mean the Dreamfinder, in person!

“I’m gonna go eat something healthy in the kitchen before I get tempted to eat those sweets.” said Figment, flying off his chair to the opposite walkway from Rachel.

“Alright!” the Dreamfinder chuckled, “Tell Rachel to come out here if you see her awake.”

“No problem, Dreamfinder!”

With Figment gone for a moment, the Dreamfinder is left alone unaware of Rachel’s presence. She crept up to him hoping he wouldn’t notice. She even felt the nerve to tap his shoulder but she couldn’t. Tapping onto a celebrity’s shoulder is like touching a sacred monument. She wrapped her fingers back into her fist figuring there is no point in trying to talk to him while he’s focusing on piloting the airship. So Rachel just stood there behind him. What would she say to him? She had already had her little temper tantrum last night. And now that the Dreamfinder has taken her to a new world, Rachel has so many questions to ask her but is afraid to say anything to him after the way she had acted earlier. Still, the Dreamfinder was nice enough to ask her to come despite how she treated him. How can she really live that down? Rachel tried reaching out for his shoulder again. This time she touched him.

“Huh?” the Dreamfinder turned around and found Rachel standing behind him, “Oh, good morning Rachel! Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I guess.” she replied.

“That’s good. Have any pleasant dreams?”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“Isn’t it amazing out here? I believe this world came from you. I was not thinking about candy last night. And when I tell you to think of sweet dreams, you really make sweet dreams come true!”

“I guess you really weren’t kidding after all. You know, about the realms of imagination.”

“I never lie, Rachel, nor would I dare to start wanting lying to you or anyone.”

“Well, that goes into the file.”

“Have you seen the clouds passing by when you came out here?”

“Yeah.” Rachel smiled, “I took a piece out of one of them and it tasted like cotton candy!”

“You see? Not only should imagination look good, but it should also taste good. But this isn’t all there is to it. There is so much more!” then the Dreamfinder set the controls to autopilot, stood up to face Rachel and said, “And I am more than willing to teach you what Figment and I know about what true imagination is.”

“Could you?”

“I’m sure we could, but that is up to you. We haven’t exactly gone too far away from Earth, so I can still turn the ship around and take you back there if you want me to. Last chance. Do you want to go home now?”

“Do you want me to go home?” Rachel asked.

“No, but whatever your decision may be, I will support it.”

Rachel thought about it for a second and then shook her head “no.”

“I’m gonna stay with you and Figment.”

“Good choice.” the Dreamfinder smiled.

“So…what kind of name is ‘the Dreamfinder’ anyway? Is that a name you were born with?”

“Of sorts. I got the name when I realized my destiny of using the power of my imagination for good and it had stuck with me ever since. I’m not exactly ready, however, to tell you all of my secrets. When the time comes, you will be the first to know.”

“What about Figment?”

“He already knows everything about me. I created him!” he laughed.

“Right.” Rachel chuckled along and then said, “Not that I’m saying that ‘Dreamfinder’ is a bad name, it’s a great name, but would you mind if I called you ‘Dreamer’…for short?”

“Not at all, Rachel.”

“Good. So, uh…I guess I should apologize for how I behaved last night…and for choking you.”

“It’s quite alright, my dear. I suppose Figment and I had it coming for getting you…well, you know.”

“Yeah.”

“DREAMFINDER! DREAMFINDER!” Figment flew outside shouting.

“What is it, Figment?” the Dreamfinder asked.

“I can’t find her! I can’t find Rachel! I looked everywhere from her bedroom to the rest of the cabin and-”

“Figment.” the Dreamfinder signals his eyes to where Rachel is standing and says, “She’s right here.”

“Hey.” Rachel greeted shyly.

“Whew! Good, that’s a relief.” Figment sighed, “So Rachel, were you thinking about candy last night? Because this place is great!”

“I guess so.”

“Oh come now, don’t be modest.” said the Dreamfinder with confidence, “Everyone has an imagination big enough to create their own world. Look at what you have done. Pretty impressive, I must say.”

Rachel didn’t say anything else. She just stared at the ground with a frown that was not hiding well enough. Only the Dreamfinder was able to notice it and press on.

“You don’t seem satisfied with your work, are you not?” the Dreamfinder asked Rachel.

“Huh?” she snapped out of her zone.

“You’re sulking.”

“Oh no, it’s not about the candy land. I think it’s great! I’m kinda tempted to jump down and take as much as I can for the road- uh, sky. I’m fine, Dreamer, really.”

“I should tell you this, Rachel. We don’t keep secrets from each other but with each other on the Dream Machine. If you have anything problematic you want to talk about, you can always talk to us.”

“Yeah, Rachel!” Figment exclaimed, “We’re your friends now. You can trust us.”

The girl looks into Figment’s yellow eyes seeing a spark of trust in him. She couldn’t help but smile a little for his comedic humor. She then looked at the Dreamfinder, or by now it’s just Dreamfinder or ‘Dreamer’ to her, and he smiled to her, too. Looking into his eyes, all blue and bold like the color of the ocean, Rachel can feel a kind of warmness in him as warm and soothing as daylight. There is some trust in those blue eyes, too, yet Rachel feels there is something more in there. Still, she’s not going to go too far into taking in what they said.

“It’s going to take more than just taking me to a different realm to gain my full-on trust and for me to trust you, just so you know.” Rachel informed.

“I understand.” Dreamfinder agreed.

“Me too.” said Figment.

“Now there is much to discuss the missing geodesic sphere.” Dreamfinder pointed, “Come with me.”

With the Dream Machine still on autopilot, Dreamfinder leads Rachel and Figment into the living room where their meeting would be held. He brought out a suitcase from his bedroom closet to the coffee table. Research papers and notes filled the entire interior where at the time the suitcase is open they would slide out. After Dreamfinder reassembled the papers and arranged them the way he wanted them to be with Figment’s help, there begins a lot more explaining to their newest member of the group.

“Now to start off, Rachel, do you know what this thing is?” Dreamfinder asked.

He took out a picture of a giant sphere with six legs supporting it. It looks so much like a golf ball on multiple tees and without a club. The second Dreamfinder showed the picture was when Rachel took instant notice of it.

“That’s Spaceship Earth from EPCOT!” Rachel revealed.

“There’s a name to it?” Figment wondered out loud.

“So you do know of it then.” Dreamfinder assumed, “Do you know anything about it?”

“Spaceship Earth is an attraction ride that opened on EPCOT’s grand opening in 1982 that’s supposed to tell Earth’s history spanning 40,000 years ago.” Rachel describes, “Its diameter is 165 ft with 11,324 isosceles triangles weighing up to 15,520,000 lbs. The attraction is made of a carbon-aluminum compound called alucabond and it sits on six legs on a hexagonal support. Spaceship Earth is actually made with two circles that stands 2ft from each other: one to house the ride inside and the other outside with the triangles, or to say the ‘shell,’ where when it rains the water is collected in between into a gutter system and channels into the World Showcase Lagoon that takes up almost half of the park’s space. It’s taken the Disney Imagineers and students and staff from MIT University slightly over two years to build and perfect while conducting engineering studies. Everything inside the attraction consists of props that are and have been highly consulted by universities with the highest historic professions for accuracy including the Smithsonian Institute from cavemen times to hieroglyphics to the printing press all the way up to today’s inventions and innovations.”

Dreamfinder and Figment said nothing. They stared at Rachel with disbelief at how much knowledge she knows about this particular structure. To them, it’s likely that what Rachel just said are not in the notes and research papers they have saved.

“What?” said Rachel realizing the staring.

“How do you know that much?” Figment asked.

“I learned my history of the parks since I graduated high school. I’m trying to learn and work my way up to become a Disney Imagineer by majoring in civil engineering. Or least I was until I got fired from my job.”

“You want to be an Imagineer?” Dreamfinder asked.

“That and to major in English to become a novel writer. The writing I can probably manage at this point since I’m pretty well known for that by my friends and siblings, but the math just keeps hitting me hard preventing me from getting to higher ranks in the engineering stage. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s pretty hard to cope even when I’ve always liked how math is processed.”

“I’m so sorry, Rachel, for all I had caused. Truly, I am.”

“That’s okay. You never intended on doing it. Now, what does Spaceship Earth have to do with anything?”

“Right! *Ahem* Before Figment and I last left the Scientifica-Lucidus Academy in Florida, Fye, who is a dear old friend and traveling companion of ours from another world of imagination now residing in the academy, gave us copies of these notes the school had made about the this geodesic sphere, your Spaceship Earth, that had appeared at the academy over thirty years ago today. They were using it to try to harness its energy so it would fuel the school with a generator they built for. That was until I accidentally made it disappear with an old invention I had made long ago (again, that’s a long story). For now, they are using dream power to keep the academy running for a while until we figure out what has happened with that sphere just as we are using it to power the Dream Machine. And thanks to Scientifica-Lucidus and other off campus universities, they were able to calculate the dimensions of its rate of distance through time and space; where it may be, how long is it there, what changes have there been since its disappearance and returning times, and when this all happens. The only problem is what, why, and how that is. But that’s not all. The last time Figment and I were at the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, we have heard there have been rumors going on about how the ‘Spaceship Earth’ has been disappearing unexpectedly before operating hours.”

“That’s impossible!” Rachel exclaimed, “Spaceship Earth has been sitting in the exact same spot since the park’s grand opening thirty-five years ago. And even if it did, it would have been difficult to move every piece of it without anyone noticing.

“That’s what we figured, too. Still, the rumors became so bad it came to a point where the Cast Members had to put up tarp over the sphere’s location with its exact height to make it look like it’s under construction. And you’re right. Though it may be possible to move the sphere piece by piece, it could not have gone like that unnoticed. But we don’t think that’s the case of the sphere’s existence and its disappearing/return times. The problem is that we are beginning to believe that your Spaceship Earth remains in EPCOT as our sphere resides at the academy at the very same time. You and us know of one over the other, how long it’s stayed there, but there may be a possibility that since they stay there at the same time there may be more than one sphere.”

“A second Spaceship Earth?” Rachel guessed in astonishment.

“Correct!” Figment exclaimed.

“But if there’s a second Spaceship Earth, wouldn’t scientists, technicians, or any of the Imagineers have known about that by now? Wouldn’t any of them have told the world about it the minute they realized that as the park opened?”

“It’s a new challenge that has been hidden away from those people for so long.” said Dreamfinder, “They are still theorizing about what happens to the sphere and where it goes once in a while for some months, but that’s not enough to know the absolute truth of it.”

“That’s why we agreed to use our imaginations, inventions, and dream power to go find all that out for ourselves.” Figment revealed, “Thus beginning our new journey though imagination.”

“So why am I involved in this then?” Rachel asked, “How do I signify this cause?”

“A very good question. Tell her, Dreamfinder.”

“Well, our first intention for this journey was to be made as both a joy ride for you as well as an educative process.” Dreamfinder admitted, “But after we saw you imagining to fly, the two of us realized that you were, or are, going to be very useful given that you have provided a lot of information to us already. At first, when you started flying, I thought the staff that put the stage and the special effects together were the ones controlling the show. But I know imagination when I see it. You have something in you that I don’t think either one of us or even yourself would have expected to have.”

“In other words, Rachel, you’ve got talent!” Figment complimented.

“Uh…thanks, I guess.” Rachel shyly took the compliment, “So that just makes me a tool in this operation?”

“No, but if you must say something like that we would prefer it to be called a ‘helping hand.’”

“Okay…so where do we start then?”

“Here is a map of the recent destinations the academy had drawn.” Dreamfinder showed, pulling out the map and flattening out the creases onto the table, “We have already covered Neverland, and these other little starlit worlds surrounding the area, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

“Long ways means more fun!” said Figment in a cheerful tone.

“And I suppose you’re intending that we should just use our imagination to get to each of these new worlds?” Rachel guessed.

“Quite so.” Dreamfinder answered.

“Well I hate to say this to you both, but I wasn’t kidding when I said I have no imagination.”

"But what about this sweet candy world you-?"

"Coincidence. It was just a coincidence."

“But you flying at the expo-”

“That was by force, Dreamfinder!” Rachel interrupted, “You two dragged me onstage last minute and asked me to think of something in front of the crowd. I was so uncomfortable that time I had to use my imagination to try to get myself out of there and you two out of my hair, which, of course, didn’t go so well. I can’t imagine things in my head on my own free will. Never have been! You may be able to come up with things at the top of your head all willy-nilly or whatever, but my mind for so long has been disciplined by experience; maybe not in an orderly fashion, but definitely disciplined in its own way and its own right. Drag me all over the universe if you like, but I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help but be a heavy weight in your traveling.”

Dreamfinder said nothing. He sat back and stared down at the table with his arms crossed in thought. Figment assumed Rachel had gotten him upset. It’s become rare for Dreamfinder to get upset over such things. All is silent for a moment or two. Rachel is beginning to think she has spoke a little too hard to him. The silence feels intense. It’s crawling into Rachel’s skin causing goosebumps to appear.

Then Dreamfinder lifted his head with his eyes pointed straight at hers as sharp as a knife and said, “Do you really believe that your own mind is disciplined by right? Because if that is the case then it sounds you are trying to do this to yourself as well just to gain approval from people who think otherwise about you.”

That remark struck the girl silly like a sock of moral sense in the face. Though she didn’t allow it to show it physically, you can tell it is there in both her stomach and her throat.

Dreamfinder continued sternly, “Now I don’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable position, but that is half of what I think what is going in your mind. You feel closed up inside your head that you are failing to see yourself in a place where you really could believe yourself being in. The world you have known, thought, and seen are not just in your mind.” He then turned and pointed to the nearest window and continued, “It’s all out there waiting for you to greet it. I believe this journey through our imaginations is going to be a lot more educative than I have expected. Not just from what we see out there, but what you will see in you. That’s all I will have to say.”

Dreamfinder stood from his chair and left Figment and Rachel in the living room. Neither one of them said another word for a mere half a minute. Not even Figment has seen him like this whether or not he means well, which he believes Dreamfinder does. As Rachel watches Dreamfinder leave, she starts feeling bad for what she said as if she were not just insulting herself, in a sense, but also insulting him.

“Did I just get him mad?” Rachel asked Figment.

“I’m not sure.” he replied, “There must have been mixed similar feelings in there I’m not sure what to call that. And those don’t seem insulting, just strict I guess.”

“Shoot. I hate to admit it, but he’s right. It’s all that and that my mind stays out of focus here and there when it’s most needed. I do hope I haven’t offended him or you in anyway.”

“I’m not, though I’ll take the apology and forgive you for that.”

Rachel pats Figment on the back and then goes after Dreamfinder. Back out the cabin space she again finds him in the pilot’s seat working the controls on the Dream Machine. Again she crept up to him though not intending to scare him, only this time Dreamfinder noticed her coming through the vibration of her footsteps but didn’t say anything. Just as he said, Rachel is feeling closed up inside for all that just happened. She has to stand up and take it like a grown up should.

“Dreamer? Did I offend you in someway?” Rachel asked.

“No, not really Rachel.” Dreamfinder replied, “But if anyone has offended someone in someway in this aircraft, it’s you offending yourself, telling yourself you cannot imagine anything because you feel forced not to.”

“But-”

“No buts!” he yelled, “If you really believe you are not worthy of using the power of imagination to get you out of trouble and face these challenges all on your own, then by all means go grovel back into your own bed and cry your heart out until you learn some sense!”

Biting her lip, she tried not to cry. She may have allowed one tear to fall due to the fact that all what Dreamfinder said is true. Her eyes shut tightly to prevent anymore from coming out. Then Rachel took a deep breath and just sat down beside him, leaning on the rails and watching the dreamt-up candy land slowly stream underneath them as they soar through the cotton candy clouded sky.

He sounded very hard on her, Dreamfinder did. That’s not the way to encourage people to use their imagination either happily or generally. Now he’s having a small twist of pain inside him watching the girl sit in defeat. It didn’t feel right to say things like that, not to a woman or anyone. And anything interrupting his concentration on imagining his Dream Machine to fly could cause great scare and extreme peril. He sighed deeply trying to clear his mind. His thoughts right now are filled with happy things like flying and friendship. He’s got both of those things now, but he seems to think Rachel doesn’t believe in such happiness for her. Especially how he just treated her. Still, he smiled at her, set the controls to autopilot and again and joined her on the rails, giving her a pat and a touch behind her head. Normally that’s a creepy thing for a strange man to do to a woman, but somehow Rachel feels it comforting.

“My dear Rachel,” he began, “Don’t think I said all of this to keep you down. I am only trying to help you. If you keep thinking of yourself to be not worthy or anything, you are going to live the rest of you life in great pain and misery and I don’t want that to happen to you.”

“I appreciate it, Dreamer, really I do.” said Rachel, “Though you are right. I do often go to bed crying myself to sleep because I never really take a stand for myself. And with that, I can never imagine anything so long as I’m like that. Too many bad thoughts, not much goodness to concentrate on as it passes on. If you take me on this journey to imagination, then I pray to God that this and you and Figment are my saving grace for helping me. I don’t want to live like I have lived before. If I must do this, I’m leaving my old self behind. And if I do this, then you don’t know me anymore but someone new in me. If you’ll still have me.”

“Now that’s the right attitude. Not exactly the right tone, but definitely the right attitude. And Figment and I are happy to help.”

“Thanks. So…any chance we could go down and grab a nibble of that candy?” Rachel smiled.

Dreamfinder chuckled with delight, “I’m afraid not. But we can come back when we have some free time or have completed our journey.”

“Oh well.”

“And with that being said, I believe it’s time to head to the next magical realm.” Calling for Figment to come to the front of the ship he stands up and heads back to the controls only to stop himself with a forgotten then remembered thought. He then said, “I have something for you, Miss Rachel.” He takes out a little box from his jacket pocket, opens it, and gives it to Rachel saying, “The gem on this necklace is made out of very tiny blue stars collected from the realms in between. Each of the ones that have been processed to this form represents the countless dreams that will soon come to be and be made from mind into matter. That is to say that once you begin wearing it, whatever you can imagine will come true at your command when the gem glows. It’s a helping start for you to begin using your imagination process. Though the quantities of dream-come-trues are limitless, the power won’t last forever the longer you use it. But it’s still a lovely thing to wear whenever you go. Plus, great things will happen to you once the gem becomes useless for dream making.”

Dreamfinder takes out the necklace and puts it around Rachel’s neck. It suited her. Blue is Rachel’s favorite color as well as silver for the chain. It glistened in the morning light reflecting the color on Rachel’s skin. Being given a present just made Rachel’s day even though it’s better to give than to receive. If it’s anyone who is feeling good about it, it’s Dreamfinder. Watching her smile at the gift made him blush a little. Ah, the feeling of gift giving!

“Thank you! It’s beautiful.” Rachel smiled.

“Wear it well.” said Dreamfinder, “Now where’s Figment? Rachel, can you go get him for me while I get everything here ready.”

“Sure thing, Dreamer.”

While Dreamfinder went to tend on the Dream Machine’s controls, Rachel set out to look for Figment in the cabin. Halfway across the railway, she stopped. She thought of her new gift given by her host and its qualities. He said that for a while so long as Rachel wears the necklace, she could imagine anything she wants and make it real. She has an idea in mind on what to imagine to life. Rachel closed her eyes and concentrated on the picture in her mind, hoping what Dreamfinder said is true about the gem. Then when she opened her eyes after hurting them for a few seconds she didn’t feel any different. Perhaps she didn’t concentrate hard enough. She is just starting learning how to use her imagination power.

Suddenly, Rachel felt something in her pocket. She reached into it, pulled it out and to her surprise came out something she had imagined it to be: a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups candy bar! She wanted to see if she would find on down below in the candy land suppose Dreamfinder lowered the ship. With great delight and fascination, Rachel laughed. Therefore finally believing there truly is a great variety of possibilities. Leaving the candy bar in her pocket, for the time being, she continued to find Figment.


	4. Chapter 4

Entering the cabin, Rachel finds Figment in the hallway where he is positioning the pictures and self-portraits on the wall to make them look presentable. Though his character can be topsy-turvy and whimsical Figment is not likely one to keep some things out of place. That apparently means home design as well.

“Hey, Figment.” Rachel called, “Dreamer’s been calling for you. We’re about to enter the next realm.”

“Oh goody!” Figment cheered, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Figment dashes out the door to join with Dreamfinder bearing his own weight on his tiny little orange wings. Just as Rachel was about to follow him, she took notice of the pictures hanging on the wall. A lot of them showed sceneries of the different worlds Dreamfinder and Figment had journeyed to before she came along. There are also some old family portraits of Dreamfinder, his mother, and his siblings. Not much is shown of his father, though. The rest of them are pictures of Dreamfinder before his beard grew out all over his lower face and of him and Figment in selfies and funny poses. A few of them Rachel chuckled at until she looked at Dreamfinder’s earlier portrait of himself. He looks so different compared to today and yet not so much; it’s really the beard and his old glasses that makes the difference. Just like his eyes, the Dreamfinder’s looks somehow seem to capture Rachel’s attention. There is something interesting about him…something familiar.

Remembering the reason for being there and finding Figment, Rachel snapped out of her concentration on the picture. She followed Figment back outside to Dreamfinder just in time for the Dream Machine to enter the next realm. With everyone altogether, the teleportation can begin. Dreamfinder pushed, flipped and cranked every gear, button, and switch he needed to operate with. His goggles are over his eyes readying himself to enter the realms between with his companions.

“You ready?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Yeah!” Figment exclaimed, “Do it, Dreamfinder!”

“If we must, then yes.” Rachel smiled.

“All right! Here we go!” Dreamfinder said excitedly.

With his imagination, he imagined a portal to open in front of them. And with a push forward on both levers, the Dream Machine is pushed into it. As it enters Rachel can see the tiny blue stars inside just as Dreamfinder had described the material that made her new necklace. She did not notice her hand firmly pressing onto Dreamfinder’s shoulder, making him blush just the slightest. Not a single person in the world other than Dreamfinder and Figment ever gets to see this sort of thing happen in a lifetime’s worth. If this is how Dreamfinder brought her to these realms then this is definitely something Rachel is going to have to get used to.

With the candy land realm being just a speck of light behind them, the group of three travels through the realms in between. The tiny blue stars twinkled in everyone’s eyes like colored LED lights at a rock concert. In a place in a position of hyperspace like in Star Wars films, they race to their newest destination no knowing where they may end up. The tiny blue stars past swiftly by them, as shooting stars would sail through the night sky. Something like this is hard not to smile at. The smile on Rachel’s face had grown bigger than it had ever been in a long time. They all look so precious and fragile yet they come at them as if they are made of meteor rock and steel covered in fire, ready to bash into anything in its way.

The necklace Dreamfinder gave Rachel began to glow. It recognizes the materials it’s made out of. As it kept on glowing, it then starts floating! Figment took notice of the floating necklace and jumped back behind Dreamfinder.

“Dreamfinder, look!” Figment pointed at Rachel’s necklace.

Dreamfinder turned his head to Rachel and smiled. He figured something like this was going to happen the minute he gave the necklace to Rachel like it was destiny.

“What’s it doing?” Figment whispered in Dreamfinder’s ear.

“She’s dreaming.” Dreamfinder replied to Figment, hoping Rachel wouldn’t hear him, “Possibilities are entering her mind right now.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Need you ask?” Dreamfinder smirked.

The tiny blue stars passing by also have some of them enter through the vacuum. Rachel watches this happen. In an instant, she becomes curious as to what happens to those little stars when it gets sucked in. Then she felt a little shake beneath her feet. She didn’t expect that to happen, but Dreamfinder and Figment did.

“Why are those stars going into the vacuum?” Rachel asked.

“It’s the Dream Machine, Rachel.” Dreamfinder replied, “It takes in any kind of material that would spark the imagination: ideas, colors, sounds, objects, anything! And when that material goes into the vacuum, the Dream Machine shakes up a bit, the material gets processed, and at the back of the ship there is a plaid airbag called the ‘idea bag’ where newly made inventions come out and are born ready to be put to use.”

Hearing this, Rachel watches the blue stars enter the vacuum again and then follows the vacuum to the back of the Dream Machine. Figment goes after Rachel watching her curiosity grow immensely as she ran. They both arrive at the idea bag as the tiny blue stars are turned into lightly colored orbs falling behind glowing its brightness in the void of darkness.

“Well those look a bit surreal.” Rachel stated, “What do you suppose they actually turn into?”

“Who knows?” said Figment, “I heard Dreamfinder once say that those blue stars that get turned into those orbs are often headed to people with bright minds. He learned it from young people who imagined those orbs lighting up in their heads the minute they thought up of new ideas.”

Then Rachel realized something. All of those blue stars, the orbs and what Figment just said somehow adds up altogether. Anything that goes into the vacuum and comes out becomes new things, and in this case, the blue stars become glowing orbs that venture off a future person’s imagination…like little sparks.

“Sparks…” Rachel realized, “We all have sparks, imaginations. That’s how our minds create creations. For they can make, our wildest dreams come true. Those magic sparks, in me and you. It’s just like the song! The blue stars. They are all sparks! These sparks come into the vacuum, the vacuum creates creations for the young minds, and everyone’s wildest dreams come true when they reach inspiration and then that makes imagination come to life.”

“Wowie-WOW! I never thought of that and I’m imaginary!” Figment laughed in delight, “That’s a really great idea! I can’t wait to tell Dreamfinder what you said.”

Figment flew away back to Dreamfinder leaving Rachel at the back of the Dream Machine. He is so excited with Rachel’s discovery that the scales on his body began to sparkle as bright as those blue stars. Anything Figment doesn’t know but hears it for the first time always makes him jump. As Figment tells Dreamfinder what Rachel said, even he became surprised at what she said. I couldn’t have said it better myself, Dreamfinder thought to himself, understanding completely what Rachel had meant. It seems that the necklace is working wonders for her. But there’s still a long way to go for Rachel. Her adventure is just beginning.

But Dreamfinder is going to have to compliment Rachel’s discovery later for they are about to enter the next new realm. Shining like the sun the exit way out of the realms in between came closer and closer. Feeling the light crawl up on her back, Rachel turns around and gets blinded by it. She runs back to Dreamfinder’s side with Figment already there. Attracted by the light of the oncoming world soon to be at their feet the Dream Machine streams towards bringing its three riders there with it. And then in the light, they are all consumed in.

In this light Rachel, Figment and Dreamfinder are all welcomed with vast warmth. It coddled them all like warm blankets wrapped around while sitting by a fireplace. It’s a wonderful feeling to Rachel. Not once in her life has ever felt this way for her life was lived very coldly by a traumatic childhood. For once, that coldness could not reach her. At least for a while, it cannot.

This new world opened to the three friends that same morning. Compared to Earth and the Candy land, however, this place is a lot more twisted in its own exotic and whimsical ways. In fact, it’s nothing like home at all but more wonderful and uncommon to human eyes. This new world points to the sky with its light maroon colored jagged mountains. Rivers of pink water are falling from those mountains flowing through its blue and light yellow green-grassed plains where creatures nearby come to drink. The inhabitants that live there, in comparison to the animals back home, are mixed with three or more different species instead of one or two. The trees that grow are of metal coils with pink petals sprouting at the top end. There are also larger trees that grow more fur in blue and lavender purple than regular leaves of green, orange, yellow or red. Its trunks, however, are colored in those four colors but instead of wooden roots, they look more like a bird’s talons. And if all that doesn’t strike as weird, then it should be very hard to make that argument when you look at the source of its light. Both the sun and the moon are one starlit planet with one side of it to be full of fire while the other is dark like an eclipse, the closest to the moon anyone could get.

Entering this world brought a spark in Rachel’s eyes that she could not believe a place like this could be possible to see. And yet it is. She leaned forward far wanting to get closer to touch this new place she did not notice her hands are pressing down onto Dreamfinder’s shoulders. His shoulders were beginning to hurt yet he chuckled to himself of Rachel’s new amazement.

“Oomph! Easy Rachel.” Dreamfinder said while getting flattened, “We’ll be landing in a moment.”

“Oh sorry. I’m just excited.” Rachel said shyly.

“That’s okay. Now we just need to find a good landing spot.”

Figment, after all three of them have searched for a spot to land the Dream Machine, pointed down below, “There’s a spot!”

The dragon pointed at a rock that provided enough shade from the strangely formed sun and moon planet. It is also close enough to reach the pink river if it should be safe enough for consumption or swimming. This should be a good spot to park the Dream Machine for a while. With the right coordinates, Dreamfinder carefully lowers the airship down to that location. Knees shaking, Rachel is feeling reckless ever so ready to step foot into this new land. A feeling like this is like taking the first step onto the moon she knows of from back home.

Continuing down, Rachel had an idea of her own to preserve this new memory. With her imagination, her new necklace glowed blue. In her hands appeared a vintage classic Polaroid camera with a light blue exterior and a built-in video camera to switch into if she wants to take videos instead of just pictures. Excitedly she began taking aerial viewed pictures of the new land. In a humorous tone, Figment photo-bombed a couple of her photos as if posing as a fashion model.

“Silly!” Rachel smiled at Figment. To show she was a good sport about it, Rachel gave the photobombed pictures to the little dragon for him to keep.

“Thanks!” Figment said.

Finally, Dreamfinder lands the Dream Machine safely to the ground. With everything turned off for the airship cool and regain its dream power energy, the three of them geared themselves up ready to start their new adventure in this new world.

Finished first, Dreamfinder called, “Time to explore!”

He jumped off the Dream Machine with Rachel and Figment following him. Every door in the cabin is locked up as well as the controls to power the Dream Machine. No one can get in nor could they take the ship without having either one of those three around. With the sun moon’s glowing light, its light-turquoise colored sky and glittery purple clouds greeted the three dreaming adventurers. Everything looks so much bigger close up especially the coiled trees. Seeing enough of this place makes Rachel want to run; just run and keep on running! Though she didn’t want to give Dreamfinder and Figment a hard time finding her since neither one of them have any idea of where this is or how to navigate there.

“What is this place?” Rachel asked out loud.

“I don’t know.” said Dreamfinder, “It looks really marvelous, though.”

“Wheee! I can’t wait to see what there is in this place!” Figment said who is just as excited just as the other two are.

Figment, unable to contain himself, zigzagged across the plain ahead of his friends. There is so much to see and so much to know about. The farther Figment flew the more excited he gets to see what this world has in store for them.

“Figment! Wait!” Rachel called out.

“He’ll be fine.” said Dreamfinder with confidence, “We can catch up to him or he can just fly back to us. In the meantime, Rachel, let’s look around.”

“All right. Lead the way.”

So Dreamfinder and the girl walk away from the Dream Machine on their own hoping to catch up to Figment as well as see something new. Along the way, they see the creatures that live nearby. One of them is mighty peculiar. It has the head of a male antelope, condor wings as red as a cardinal with talons for hands, and a single human foot for a leg.

“What kind of animal do you suppose is that?” Rachel asked while taking a picture of those creatures.

“Strange is what I would say.” Dreamfinder replied, and then looking across the pink river he continued, “They seem to travel together in flocks.”

“Amazing! I wonder what kind of grass they’re eating out of.” Rachel knelt down to the ground and took a strand of it. Normal grass would be green and taste like…well, grass. Smelling it and then tasting the blue strand, Rachel becomes astonished.

“Mint.” she says, “The grass is mint flavored!”

Then Dreamfinder pulls a piece off the ground and tastes it also. Smiling he says, “You’re right! Real mint grass!”

Looking at the plains, Rachel theories, “Each strand of this mint grass could be enough to make its own bottle of peppermint extract and be sold almost a million, maybe a billion a day! And look over there!”

Rachel pointed towards the mountains where a stone bridge and two doors are structured between the large gap of one mountainside to another. Waterfalls of pink water ran down the sides of those doors and fell crashing down onto the stream that leads to the plains.

“A bridge?” Dreamfinder discovered.

“There must be some people living here.” Rachel figured.

“Golly, how badly Fye would wish to see this.” said Dreamfinder, remembering his old friend.

“How badly anyone would wish to see it is more like it. So who is Fye anyway?”

“A very dear old friend of Figment and me. When our adventure first began in our first dream realm, Figment and I were captured by sound sprites and taken as prisoners for ‘having our audio off-key.’ There we met Fye in the same cell. Sound sprites use their wings to turn sound sap from their, I guess you can call it, audio acreage and use that sap to create new things. Fye, however, became a prisoner because everything he touched breaks into mush. The two of us, Fye and myself, we both related a lot and he became a very powerful and wonderful ally.”

“Wait. Fye is a sprite? A real sprite?!”

“That’s right. Though he was never able to make his wings able to create things, he used them for good things. Though we never really got a chance to talk about how he had lived while Figment and I were gone and after we last saw him at Scientifica-Lucidous in Florida. I’ll have to ask him when we return there.”

“You mean he lives on Earth now?”

“Oh yes. When Figment and I returned to London he came with us. Years later, just by luck, we found the academy and in it, Fye…and a giant golden statue of Figment and me.” Dreamfinder blushed.

“Gold statue? Man, it’s enough that you travel from realm to realm but to have a statue built for you? Sheesh!”

“You have no idea!” he laughed.

Suddenly, the weird antelope birds began flying away in a frantic pace. Hopping on their one human foot they spread their wings to get away. They all crowd in, squawked, and cried as they flew towards the maroon colored mountains.

“Now what are they flying away from?” Dreamfinder asked.

A growling a heard behind and only Rachel was able to hear it with her sensitive hearing. Cautiously she turned around. The sight of the growling source was enough to allow butterflies to flutter in Rachel’s stomach. She tapped Dreamfinder’s shoulder hard and madly as if scared at what she’s seeing. Dreamfinder turned around to what Rachel is seeing and gained the same scared expression.

Behind them is a creature, no- a beast that’s bigger than each one of them. It bore the head of an elephant with ebony tusks, sharp teeth and claws, the body of a gray tiger with a white tip on the end of his tail, and (strangely) red-violet edged butterfly wings. The butterfly wings seemed promising, I suppose, but everything else didn’t look so friendly looking. The beast continued growling at Rachel and Dreamfinder as if they are prey. There is such thing as an omnivore, but when you mix an elephant head to a tiger’s body it’s hard to tell if this beast would actually eat meat or vegetation. 

“Dreamer, what do we do?” Rachel whispered.

“Uhh…try to back away verrrrrry slowly.” Dreamfinder whispered back, “Hopefully, it wouldn’t notice us leaving.”

“Dude! Elephants are intelligent, tigers are quick with their reflexes, and butterflies…fly! Do you really think it wouldn’t notice us leaving when it already notices us standing here?”

“Shh, hush! Let me think!”

Dreamfinder carefully looks around them for an easy escape route to get away from…whatever that thing is. And then it hits him.

“Rachel, listen to me.” Dreamfinder ordered in a whisper still, “behind us to our left there is a curly rock thing that serves as a bridge from here to the other side of the river. We’ve got to run to that rock, cross the river and, if it’s flexible enough, pull one of those trees back, let it go and it will whack that thing to the ground. Did you get that?”

“Yeah.” she whispered.

“On my signal. And…NOW!”

The two friends start sprinting to that curly rock by the river. The beast, who transitioned from growling to roaring, took off after them. Rachel and Dreamfinder are pretty fast, but the beast is much faster. Just like Figment did earlier, the two of them started zigzagging to avoid close reaches from the beast. They arrive to the curly rock and begin climbing. Dreamfinder is a pretty good climber, but Rachel is pretty slow at it as well as frightened to figure out which step to take next before the beast gets to her. Abruptly, her foot slips off of a small ledge and she falls. But Dreamfinder catches Rachel’s arm just in time before the beast would plunge its tusks into her flesh. Arm in arm, they climb the curly rock and cross the river. The beast flew to the top of the rock with his butterfly wings. Its roar shook the ground with it anger aimed towards them. Chills are running up to both Rachel and Dreamfinder’s spines as the beast roars so loudly. Hiding behind the nearest coil tree they watch the beast make itself ready to pounce at them. Time is at the essence. They pull down the coil tree far back to the point where the pink petals touched the ground. But just as Dreamfinder and Rachel are about to let the tree go and whack the beast down, a furry being fell down from the petals.

“Ow!” the furry thing said in its little girl voice.

“Ah! What is that?” Rachel screamed.

“Rachel, focus! It’s coming!” Dreamfinder screamed, too.

The beast pounced off the rock and flew the rest of the way across the river ready to charge an aerial attack on its soon-to-be victims. And once it did, Rachel and Dreamfinder lets go of the tree. The tree catapulted from their side to the beast unaware of the tree’s maneuver. Smackdown it crashes onto the beast knocking it silly.

“Whew! We did it!” Dreamfinder exclaimed.

“YES!” Rachel cheered, “That was awesome! Scary, but awesome!”

“W-What are you?!” the little furry being cried.

Dreamfinder and Rachel, astounded to hear that it speaks English, turned their attention from the beast to the little brown furry thing. It, or she since its voice sounds more of a little girl’s voice, covered with hair and fur from head to toe. She is clothed in rags with her bare feet and bare forearms. The only places that are not covered in hair and fur are the forearms and the eyes. She even has a tail like a bobcat’s. She is just about half of Rachel’s height (Rachel is about 5’7). Frightened and helpless, she cringed down fearing these two strange creatures are going to hurt her.

“How did you find me? Who sent you?” she cried more.

“Umm…nobody.” Rachel answered, “We didn’t know you were up there.”

“Are you okay?” Dreamfinder asked calmly, reaching his hand to touch her arm.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” the girl screamed, “Please…please don’t hurt me. You shouldn’t be near me.”

“Why not?” Dreamfinder asked her again.

Then in the distance, a faint sound of men’s voices rose. Everyone turned to the direction the voices are coming from. They sounded like men shouting as if going to war.

“They are coming! We have to get away now!” the furry girl shouted.

“They? They, who?” Rachel asked the girl to be specific.

“Hey look!” Dreamfinder said, pointing out to an incoming crowd.

Only it’s not exactly just a crowd, but an angry mob. It’s an angry mob of warriors, older and stronger looking, of the little girl’s kind. They carry spears, clubs and shields for weapons as if they are ready for battle. Those furry warriors are coming closer and closer as their chants grow louder and louder. The little furry girl started running away from Dreamfinder and Rachel. That mob must be what she is talking about. They must be chasing her, but for what reason? Rachel and Dreamfinder just stood there not knowing what to do. Ultimately, the mob of warriors reached the two of them reaching their spears out and pointed at Rachel and Dreamfinder’s necks. The other half of the mob cornered the little girl at a distinct looking tree; the tree with the talon-rooted feet. There the warriors caught her with their nets. The girl screamed in terror wanting so badly to get away, but the net is made out of solid steel. It’s way to heavy for a little girl her age to carry or even lift with their pinky finger.

“NO! NO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!” the girl shrieked.

“HEY! YOU LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!” Rachel shouted.

“SILENCE!” said the largest warrior of the group pointing his spear closer to Rachel’s neck. He must be the chief captain of those warriors. “What are these things?” he asked.

“We’re…We’re humans.” Dreamfinder said, “I am Dreamfinder and this is Rachel. Is that little girl yours?”

“Hoo-mans?” one of the warriors tried to pronounce, “Strange name for unknown species.”

“What are you supposed to be?” Rachel asked the chief.

“We are the Woosoes.” said the chief, “That child does not belong to us but to our prison cells. Just as you two will be suppose our king and our god are not in a good mood.”

“And he thinks ‘humans’ are a strange name for species.” Rachel thought to herself.

“Then lead us to them if they must see us.” Dreamfinder ordered.

“Dreamer! What are you doing?” Rachel shouted.

“ENOUGH!” the chief shouted, “We take you to our king and god now. Now move!”

Pointing their spears at their backs, the two newcomers have no choice but to follow the Woosoes. They begin walking with the warriors leading the way. At least twenty of them in total while five of them carried the poor little furry girl in her steel netted cage. She couldn’t help but sob at this predicament. Rachel turned her head to that poor girl feeling sorry this is happening to her and not doing anything about it. It’s not like Rachel could do it anyway considering she and Dreamfinder are hopelessly outnumbered.

“What was that all about?” Rachel said to Dreamfinder.

“What?” Dreamfinder said dumbfounded.

“‘Lead us to them if they must see us.’ Are you trying to get us killed or thrown into their dungeon?”

“Rachel, if we meet with these people I’m sure there is but a misunderstanding that can be mended. Besides, I’ve been through this type of situation before.”

“Did they believe what you had to say?” she asked.

“No.” he answered, “They wouldn’t even listen to our side of the story. We ended up having to escape with our lives and away from them as far as possible.”

“…Oh, sweet Lord in Heaven!” she shouted in whisper with irritation, “Where is Figment? He should be helping us.”

“Hopefully in a safer area than we are.”

“Hush up!” the chief shouted, “Keep moving!”

The Woosoes takes Rachel, Dreamfinder, and the little furry girl to the bottom edge of the mountain range where the pinks waterfalls crash down. To Rachel and Dreamfinder, the place they stopped at looked more like the side of the mountain, but that is not what the Woosoes believe. What it really is a door and inside that door would be where the rest of the Woosoes clan would be living. The chief captain stepped up to the door and called out at the door in a language unknown to Rachel and Dreamfinder. And then, with a little shake on the ground, the doors are opened by two more Wooso warriors who guarded them. Inside there is a staircase going up. The Woosoes forces Rachel and Dreamfinder to climb up those stairs with them. And so they did. There must be at least three hundred steps to get to the top. If Rachel had a choice to either walk up there or imagine herself flying to the top, she’d obviously choose to fly.

Finally reaching the top of the staircase, with Rachel and Dreamfinder’s knees and legs shaking with exhaustion, they find a hole on the wall with torchlights of green fire hanging on each side. Inside that hole, there is a slide that goes down deep into the heart of the mountain. Urging Rachel and Dreamfinder to take the slide, the chief captain had his warriors point their spears and clubs at their “guest’s” backs. What choice do they really have? None.

One of the Woosoes goes down the slide first, then Dreamfinder, Rachel, the little furry girl in her steel net, and then the rest of the Wooso warriors. Like a roller coaster, they slid and sped down the slide. This is definitely something Figment would enjoy doing just as he did back the D23 Expo. Through tunnels and chutes, they all accelerated down like a small line of ants channeling through their tunnels. Up ahead there is a dim light lit at the end of the tunnel slide. The chief captain shot out of the exit first. Then Dreamfinder came out and waited for Rachel to come out next. When she did, he caught her in his arms.

With Rachel in Dreamfinder’s arms, their eyes met. Somehow Rachel’s eyes seemed mesmerized by Dreamfinder’s blue eyes. And vice versa for Dreamfinder. He nearly smiled at her. She nearly blushed at him. Even though they haven’t known each other for very long, Rachel is always feeling a warmness coming from Dreamfinder’s arms each time he holds her. What is this feeling?

"Are you okay?" Dreamfinder asked calmly.

"Yeah." Rachel uttered.

The little furry girl’s screaming from behind them interrupted the staring contest between Rachel and Dreamfinder. The chief captain pushed them aside to catch the little girl. The little furry girl came out and dropped into the chief captain’s arms as well as his mercy. He dragged her away from the slide and from Rachel and Dreamfinder. They can see her cringing and crying as the dirt ground scrapes the little furry girl’s forearms and feet, almost bleeding.

The room Rachel, Dreamfinder, the little furry girl, the chief captain, and the rest of the Wooso warriors are in is the throne room of the royal Wooso clan. Sitting on the throne made of dried mud and stone is the king. He’s as short as the little furry girl when crouched forward with fur all over but the feet and forearms, clothed in a red cloak with white fluffy edges, bushy eyebrows, a golden crown and scepter, and the biggest frown Rachel and Dreamfinder has ever seen. He is not one happy dude. And he doesn’t look any happier when he sees the little furry girl flung at his feet in that steel net. The king stood up from his throne and walked slowly to her. He stared at the little furry girl coldly like she is nothing but trash reeking in his presence. But his attention is now averted to the two strange beings in front of him. Creatures like Rachel and Dreamfinder are nothing like what he has seen before in his life.

“Chief!” the king shouted in a gruffly rasped voice, “Who and what are these things standing in my throne room.”

“They claim to be a species called ‘heu-mans,’ your majesty. One of them is Rachel and the other…Peeheinie.”

Rachel felt the need to burst into laughter, but she could not laugh but slightly chuckle. Peeheinie. That’s the funniest name she’s ever heard. Even some of the other Woosoes began to giggle at the name. At least Rachel’s name was pronounced correctly.

“Uh…it’s Dreamfinder to you, good sir.” Dreamfinder corrected, “Anyways, Rachel and I and another one of our friends are travelers and-”

“Another friend?” the king interrupted, “How many are you?”

“Just three, your majesty. Our friend flew off without us. We are all explorers from a different world who travel with the power of our imagination.”

“Imagi-what?”

“Imagination!”

“Seriously, you guys have never heard of imagination?” Rachel scoffed, “They are pictures that appear in your mind once in a while. That’s where ideas come from: imagination and dreams.”

“Ah! Is that what your people call it?” the king realized with question, “We, the Woosoes, have always called them trick-pics.”

“That’s an interesting way to call it.” said Dreamfinder.

“Now where do you come from exactly?” the king asked.

“Umm…we come from the planet Earth where millions of us humans and other creatures flourish.” Dreamfinder replied.

“I see. Then I guess it would be pointless for us to lock you up and wage war upon your realm considering there is so many of you and so little of us here. Then again…” the king gripped his scepter tightly.

Dreamfinder and Rachel didn’t say another word. There is a bad feeling running inside them that this guy is planning on taking over the world and they are the ones who spilt the beans about them. They gulped, both of them did. They do not like the looks of this.

But then the king said, “However, due to recent events, it is now not up to me to decide the good of our people but up to our god. BRING HIM FORTH, MY BROTHERS! BRING FORTH OUR GOD!”

Two of the Wooso guards came into the throne room carrying a palanquin with poles attached on each side. All of the Woosoes bowed down to their god coming to bless them with its presence. Rachel and Dreamfinder are forced to kneel at the god’s entrance. Reluctantly, they did. The person sitting on the palanquin in between the guards sat comfortably in luxury. When the guards came in, Dreamfinder and Rachel became shocked.

“Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!” Rachel shouted.

The being sitting on the palanquin looked so familiar to the two explorers. I’ll give you a hint: big yellow eyes, orange horns and wings, crocodile nose, and purple scales.

 

Who is it? That's right……Figment.


	5. Chapter 5

“Figment!” Dreamfinder shouted with great relief.

Yes, it is Figment who has become the Woosoes new god. He wore a crown of pink petals over his head and held a rainbow colored wooden staff with pink petals at the top. The Woosoes must have found Figment first before Rachel or Dreamfinder did except he’s gotten some better deal out of being taken in as a prisoner. The palanquin Figment is sitting on is made of the same rainbow colored wood as Figment’s scepter with golden edgings and a scarlet red pillow for Figment’s comfort. Yep, he’s living it up all right.

“Dreamfinder! Rachel!” Figment exclaimed, “What are you doing here?”

“What are we doing here?” Rachel repeated the question and shouted, “WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!”

“I’ve been here. Not long after we arrived, I went out to explore and got attacked by one of those weird colored trees. They look like they stand on one trunk, but they actually flip upside down and run with their green braches. The tree came after me, it caught me with its talon-like claw-root-thing, and then it threw me all the way to the mountains! That’s where these nice people found me and recognized me as their god. And here I am.”

“That’s fascinating!” Dreamfinder smiled.

“Yeah, well while you were getting flung around by trees like a sissy and given praises by these people, Dreamer and I were attacked by one of those predators here. It had an elephant head, gray tiger with black stripes for a body, and butterfly wings.” Rachel described their scenario, “After we defeated it, these guys found us and this little furry girl and brought us here as prisoners.”

“Yes, my lord!” the king chimed in to Figment, “What must we do to these heu-mans? Should we lock them up and take up arms against their kind?”

“YOU CAN’T!” the little furry girl cried from the ground, “You can’t wage war on anyone. It’s all wrong.”

“You….” the king responded to her coldly, “with all of this talk about realms and gods, I almost forgot about you. Running away from our clan and from my control. Truly uncalled for.” turning to Figment he asked, “Should we have this girl executed for her misdeeds as well, my lord?”

“E-Executed?!” Rachel exclaimed.

“My word!” Dreamfinder exclaimed also.

“Oh no! No war! No execution!” Figment, the Great Dragon God of the Woosoes exclaimed, “The humans are very friendly people, especially these two. No war, but peace in this world. And I do not see anything terrible about this kid. Look at her, small and helpless and you don’t offer her any help. Now that is truly uncalled for. This girl shall not be executed unless given reason! So says me!”

“Yeah! What he says!” Rachel called out.

“Very well.” The king grumbled, “Then the least I can do is send her back to the dungeon until I figure out a proper punishment for her. TAKE HER AWAY!”

Two of the Wooso warriors takes the steel net with the little furry girl inside and drags her away out of the throne room. From a short distance, Rachel can see the little furry girl’s eyes water up to tears as she stood there watching the poor thing being dragged away. There is something about thing little girl that Rachel has a familiar sense to. Rachel can only feel not but feel sorry for her.

“Now then, my lord.” the king began to Figment, stealing Rachel’s attention back to him, “You say that these two beings are your friends?”

“That’s right, your kingliness!” said Figment, “We all came here together as a team.”

“It is settled then. Friends to our god are friends to us as well! We shall treat these new friends as equally as our god!”

“HOORAY!” the Woosoes cheered for joy.

“We shall throw a feast tonight in honor our gods and his party!”

“Now that’s awfully generous of you.” said Dreamfinder, “Don’t you think so, Rachel?” 

Rachel is still focused on the little girl the king had sent away to the dungeon. Dreamfinder, able to read her expressions thoroughly, can see that Rachel is distracted by something…something dark and sad.

“Rachel?” He asked again.

“Huh?” Rachel grunted, “Oh yeah, it’s great! Thank you!”

“Now we haven’t been properly introduced. I am Fur KaZing, King of the Woosoes.” said KaZing, “Allow me and my servants to show you where you will be staying.”

“Lead the way, my good Wooso!” Dreamfinder allowed.

King KaZing along with two other Wooso servants led Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment from the throne room the main hall. To the side stood pillars of mountain rock and behind it the entire civilization of the Woosoes. So many levels of walkways, at least fifty, stacked each other as more pillars and wooden poles hold them up. Yes, there are very many Woosoes, but still not enough to take on armies back home on Earth. They, the Woosoes, would be at a great disadvantage suppose King KaZing had waged war on them. And why should they anyway? The Woosoes seem like a very friendly population. They don’t look like people who would want to have war, not unless they would have no other choice.

“What is this land called, may I ask, your majesty?” Dreamfinder asks the king.

“You walk amongst us in the Valley of Fillidore, my lord Dreamfinder.” KaZing replied, “Here our people thrive in three nations: Us, the Woosoes, then there is the Khalizis who are slightly taller than us and are vastly enriched with the knowledge of metal welding, and lastly the Mochikas who are very well known for their choice of fashion as well as their herbs and spices.”

“What are you well known for?” Figment asked.

“Our good source of rock and natural material. We here take great pride in using our resources to build our homes, our forts for protection, and our great bridge that links our city to the other side of the mountain range where we can use an easier route to journey to our brother tribes instead of climbing one mountain after another. Since there is more of our kind right here, the Wooso City is named to be the capital of our people.”

“Simply amazing!” Dreamfinder regarded.

“What about music?” Rachel asked.

“Music?” KaZing confusedly said.

“Yeah, music. You know how some things make different sounds when you bang it against another object like tapping your feet on the ground. It’s just like that only with more rhythm to it.”

“Hmmm…I am not familiar with this music you speak of. Perhaps you can offer us a little demonstration?”

“Oh, uhh…heh, well I don’t about Dreamfinder or Figment, but I’m not really a musician myself. I don’t really play any instrument of the sort.”

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, I can! I can!” Figment exclaimed raising his hand, “I can play a mean xylophone! And I have my own music band to play with.”

“Where?” Rachel asked.

Figment, making it look so easy, duplicated himself into three more Figments. It’s part of his nature as an imaginary friend to Dreamfinder. The king is so thrilled this act he clapped at it. The duplicates all giggled as each of them are created.

“Ta-DA!” the Figments cheered, “We are the Four Figments!”

“Just dandy.” Rachel groaned, covering her hand over her face.

“Hey! Why don’t we all perform for the Woosoes tonight, give them a taste of Earth’s culture?” Dreamfinder suggested in a positive tone, “That is, if it will please you and your people, King KaZing.”

“Of course!” King KaZing exclaimed with delight, then calling one of his servants he said, “Servant, make a note. Our esteemed gods are to perform for us tonight after the feast! Everyone is invited! Go! Go forth and tell them all! And invite our brother tribes, too!”

“You guys can sing and dance all you want.” Rachel said, “Leave me out of it.”

“What? It was your idea.” Dreamfinder argued.

“No, I only brought up the music topic. You brought up the idea of performing.” And the Rachel whispered to Dreamfinder, “You saw me at the center stage, remember?”

“Right.” Dreamfinder remembers Rachel’s position onstage back on Earth. It is something that even he cannot forget.

“Besides that,” she continued, making sure KaZing is not listening, “I don’t entirely trust the king for one reason alone. I’m not sure it’s legit yet, but there is something about this guy I do not like. Just bear with me on this.”

“Alright. You and me, we’ll keep this between us. In the meantime, let’s take advantage of their hospitality. We may never get this opportunity again.”

“Yes sir.”

“Ah, here we are!” King KaZing exclaimed.

The doors that the three friends and the king approach to are to be the “god’s chambers.” It is the nicest looking room next to the throne room and the king’s chambers in the entire Wooso civilization. The doors are crested with the most precious metal the Woosoes ever found and crafted: copper. Along with the copper are hand painted murals of Woosoes living the way they live as per tradition from living in mountains, to agriculture, to metal welding. Above them is a painted picture of a dragon-like figure’s shadow with painted light glowing around it. That’s probably proof as to how Figment first became the Woosoes new god. They believe it was prophesized. And with two more gods that makes three, the Woosoes feel a lot more safer than they would be. But what’s to be safe from other than those elephant-headed predators? Just what could it really be?

“Here is where our most beloved immortals will be staying.” said KaZing, “If you need anything, my servants and I will attend to you.”

“Yeah, one question.” Rachel asked, “Would it be alright if we explored the place a little? I’m planning on writing a book on our adventures and this place seems likely to take part in it.”

“Of course, of course! Search everywhere if you must. Us Woosoes will gladly welcome you all to our companies. Now, I must be going right now. I have a lot of preparations to attend to for tonight. Ta-ta!”

And with that, the king is gone. Figment, Dreamfinder and Rachel take the time to observe their guest room. For a primitive environment, the god’s room looks pretty homely. It only had one giant bed that could easily fit three to four people, three windows with two them looking out to Fillidore’s plains and the one window looking out to the inside of the mountain with a view of the Wooso civilization of everyday, comfortable blankets and pillows to warm up in, and very nice décor fit to be seen at a Wooso god’s presence.

“This is nice!” said Figment, “Simple, classic, and original.”

“So Rachel, are you seriously considering on writing a book of our travels?” Dreamfinder asked, “Or was that an excuse to lurk around your suspicions?”

“Both, actually.” Rachel answered, “Yes, I do want to dig around the area and see what makes the king tick. But at the same time I do want to keep a record of everything we go through. It’s more of a log really, but it’ll definitely serve as a basis for a couple memoirs. You don’t mind if I write a lot about you two in the story, do you?”

“Not at all, Rachel! It would be a great delight. And it would be nice for the world back home to know what kinds of places we see.”

“I also have a camera for visuals to put into the log. I’ve already got a couple photos of Fillidore from an aerial view. Imagine how people would react when I show them these in the published books.”

“Wow! I would love to read your stories!” said Figment, “Can I get a free copy?”

“Sure you can, but what would be the point? You’re already in the story.”

“We go on so many adventures! A lot more than you have, I’m sure. So many I’ve nearly forgotten a few.”

“Figment, we’ve only gone on about five adventures so far in our lifetime.” Dreamfinder reminded.

“Oh yeah!” Figment chuckled.

“Well, I’m gonna go explore the area a bit.” said Rachel, packing up her empty log book, pencil and camera, “I’ll try to be back in time for the feast to start.”

“Okey-dokey then!” Figment said.

“Be careful, Rachel.” Dreamfinder ordered as Rachel walked out the bedroom door.

“I will…Peeheinie.” Rachel laughed on the way out.

Dreamfinder groaned letting his head fall onto his hand in embarrassment. As Rachel left the room, Figment tried to hesitate his laughter from bursting. The name Peeheinie is too hilarious of a name to not laugh at.

“He he he. Peeheinie.” Figment giggled.

“IT’S NOT FUNNY, FIGMENT!” Dreamfinder yelled.

********************************************************************************************************

Walking through the main halls has given Rachel a lot of perspective on the craftsmanship the Woosoes have made onto its pillars, doors, and its armor the warriors wear. Everything in this world seems to fascinate her the longer she stays. Just as they are, the Wooso people are very friendly here. Everywhere Rachel went, the Woosoes greeted her kindly like an old friend known and loved for a very long time as if she were one of them. Of course she would be greeted this way, on the other hand. She knows Figment who is a god to them, the king says she and Dreamfinder are to be as well respected as Figment is, so that basically makes her a goddess. Even some of the Woosoes began calling her goddess of their people. All who have called her that just made Rachel blush, happily accepting their kindness. She even allowed some of the other little Wooso girls braid and decorate her hair with flowers. Still, so badly she wants to tell them she is no such thing but an average being of her kind, but she didn’t have the heart to tell. She fears that telling them what she is would only crush their spirits and leave with nothing or no one to put their faith in. So Rachel kept quiet about it.

But there is another reason why Rachel wanted to explore the area. She approached of the guards who stood nearby keeping watch for any mishaps. It’s not the chief captain, but this fellow is just as tall he is. If you were a Wooso, the only way you would ever contact a guard is if you are in a great dismay. But if you were to be a god or goddess, king or queen, prince or princess, the guards would have no choice but to listen and put their full attention on you. The guard sees Rachel come up to him. Given orders to treat Rachel and her friends as the highest authority, he bowed to her in respect. Again, Rachel blushes. She hardly gets any respect from most people back home.

“At ease, sir.” Rachel orders, “You don’t have to bow down to me. I already know you are loyal to your position as both a guard and a fellow Wooso.”

“Justly kind, you are, O great goddess of our people.” said the guard, “What do I owe the greatest pleasure of standing in your presence?”

“I want to ask you a favor. You wouldn’t happen to know where the dungeon is, would you?”

“Of course I do, your fair loveliness.” That compliment from the guard really made Rachel want to giggle with delight, and he continued, “Every guard in our tribe knows the passageways of the entire Wooso city both down and up. But why go to a place so deep and dank where our prisoners lay there waiting to rot as lowly-lived scoundrels?”

“No disrespect, my good guard, but that is entirely my own business for which I’m not exactly sure if it should be truly looked into until proven so or not, if you understand. Would you mind leading me to the dungeon where I can do my business alone?”

“I would be honored to serve you, dear goddess, but I can only take you as far away as I can from my post. Wooso regulations must be taken seriously here. You would have to get there through a series of other nearby guards, unless if it greatly displeases you.”

“No, no it doesn’t. I understand entirely. Shall we?”

“It will be my pleasure.”

The guard takes Rachel, his most esteemed goddess in his eyes to which Rachel had taken in very fondly, up to the next guard closest to as far as he is able to walk to from his post. Saying goodbyes to that one guard and thanking him for his kindly compliments, Rachel follows the new guard who gladly escorts her the next guard, and then to the next guard, and the next guard, and the next guard, and so forth until at last the final guard has brought Rachel to the front of the dungeon room’s door. The final guard knocked on that door while on the other side the dungeon’s warden sees the guard knocking in front of him through a peeking window.

“Who goes there?” the warden asks, “And what brings you to the foulest place in our civilization?”

“Frank! You know who I am! I’m Denny!” Denny the final guard exclaimed, “I stand right outside the staircase every day and night!”

“Just want to make sure there are no tricks.”

“Uuuuugh…I bring to you our Goddess Rachel. She requests that she sees someone in the dungeon for a moment.”

“As our goddess wishes.”

The warden closes the window and unlocks the door from the inside. After thanking Denny the final guard for being her escort, Rachel follows Frank the warden into the dungeon. Everywhere around her she sees numbers of Woosoes crouched into their corners of barred prisons, rotting and groaning just as the first guard had told her earlier. At the sight of these Woosoes suffering in their cages for the rest of their lives because of whatever misdeeds they have done, Rachel’s heart began to break. True, a just punishment must be made for whatever crimes they have committed, but surely a Wooso must deserve some better treatment than this. Prisoners back home, they may not be given so much credit for what they have done but at least they are well taken cared of as far as hygiene, food, and a proper bed is concerned. Seeing what is in front of her, it’s too much. It’s more than her heart can bear.

Rachel is searching for a particular prisoner in the dungeon. She checks the barred caged jails until she comes across a jail with a wooden door and a barred window on top guarded by two fierce Wooso warriors on either side. These two are a lot more bigger and bulkier in muscles compared to the other warriors, a lot meaner looking, and a lot more focused on their jobs than some others. Frank the warden allows Rachel to see inside the prison cell to see if whoever is in there is the Wooso she wants to see. Looking in she sees parts of the prisoner’s face. Rachel recognizes the features the prisoner had when she first met her not too long ago.

“Yes, yes this is the one.” Rachel said, “This is the prisoner I want to see.”

The warden tells the warrior guards to open the cell and let their goddess inside. The warriors have done as they are told to do. One of the warriors unlocked the door with the key while the other slid the door open for Rachel. As Rachel went inside the cell, both the guards bowed in respect for her. With the cell door closed behind her and locked so the prisoner wouldn’t escape, Rachel walked up to the prisoner calmly and steadily.

Shaking with fear and from the bitter cold of the mountain ground the prisoner suddenly looked up at Rachel from below. The prisoner is a “she.” She tried to scurry away from the human girl’s presence crying at the sight of the goddess of Woosoes who must have come to punish her greatly under King KaZing’s request. But instead of malice and abuse, all the prisoner could feel right now is a sweet and tender petting on her head. She looks up in confusion with her big and innocent purple eyes and sees that Rachel is the one who is doing this to her. Rachel smiles at the prisoner. She can see that the prisoner is someone who could not harm her or even another being. Looking at her makes Rachel feel something great inside herself, such a feeling that not she had ever been given for so long, hardly ever.

“It’s okay,” Rachel said in a calm and soothing voice, as any goddess or perhaps a loving mother would speak, “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to harm you.”

She continues to pet the prisoner until at last the prisoner stands up from the ground and approaches Rachel in the only source of light she is given. The prisoner has the same black hair on her head, she has that little girly voice that squeaked with fright, is half of Rachel’s size, and is wearing the same rags she has been wearing earlier today.

The prisoner is the little furry girl Rachel and Dreamfinder had found during the attack and the same Wooso girl the king had sent into the dungeon. She is here now and Rachel has finally gotten a chance to meet her personally alone.

********************************************************************************************************

While Rachel is visiting in Wooso population and, unknown to them, the dungeon, Dreamfinder and Figment have been spending the past half to full hour rehearsing their song and dance routine for tonight’s feast with Wooso king and his people. They thought of new songs with lyrics to sing and dance steps to match it. These two seem to be having a lot of fun coming up with stuff on their own just as they have always been doing during their adventures. Each time they mess up in practice they are always tripping and have to start over again. But they have faith that they will get everything right for their performance.

“1-2-3. 1-2-3.” Dreamfinder murmured to himself trying to get his dance steps in order.

“I wish Rachel were with us.” said Figment, “She’d be great performing with us.”

“I’m sure she would, too. I just can’t imagine feeling closed-minded about expressing music since she is the one who brought it up to the king. Besides, she wants to see makes this Fillidore world operate. I think it’s good for Rachel to explore a new culture.”

“That’s what we should be doing, too! We’ve already got all the dance steps down and the song written with the right tune. And we haven’t even told the king about the geodesic sphere and of anyone of the Woosoes have seen it here.”

“Hey yeah, you’re right! We never did get a chance, didn’t we?” Dreamfinder asked, “Well, we can always ask King KaZing about it tonight at the feast. Let’s take a break and go join Rachel.”

“Right-ho!” Figment agreed.

Leaving their bedroom at last, they search for Rachel. Just as Rachel had been this afternoon, the Woosoes have greeted Dreamfinder and Figment very warmly. They were even given some gifts of the merchandise they sell as they pass by. Some Wooso children are playing games and they asked Dreamfinder and Figment to participate. Of course Dreamfinder was not doing so well with those games, but Figment looks like he’s got the hang of playing…whatever it is. They asked questions all over town if any of the Woosoes has seen Rachel just now. Of course they have, but the Woosoes had no idea where Rachel might have gone. Suddenly, they have come across this warrior guard who was standing nearby watching very closely to the town suppose anything terrible happened.

“Greetings, good sir.” Dreamfinder said, “You wouldn’t happen to have seen our female friend, Miss Rachel, would you?”

“Ah yes, my lord Dreadfinger-” the guard mispronounced.

“Dreamfinder.” Dreamfinder corrected.

“Oh yes, my apologies my lord Dreamfinder. Our goddess Rachel has asked us guards to escort her to the dungeon not long ago.”

“What?”

“The dungeon? What’s she doing down there?” Figment asked with shock.

“Hmm…I think I have a pretty good idea, Figment.” Dreamfinder idealized, “You sir, can you direct us to the dungeon?”

“As you wish, my lords.” said the guard, “Do you wish for an escort?”

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary. You can point out the direction for us, if you will like.”

“You must return to the main hall and walk to the east side where the middle door at the end of the hall will take you all the way down to the dungeon. Goddess Rachel must still be down there.”

“Thanks a lot, pal!” Figment thanked.

“Yes, thank you.” said Dreamfinder.

The Dreamfinder and Figment are on their way to the dungeon just where Rachel is. They find themselves back into the main hall where they started from. Along the way thoughts are running in both of there minds for one question alone: Why is Rachel in the dungeon?

“Goddess Rachel?” Figment wondered aloud.

“The king did say for the Woosoes to treat us three as equally as gods are, so that includes Rachel, too.” Dreamfinder clarified, then mumbled to himself, “And she is lovely and beautiful as one.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Dreamfinder tensed.

“Hmm…”

********************************************************************************************************

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked.

The little furry girl, full of fear, had tried to keep herself away from Rachel, Dreamfinder and the rest of the Wooso tribe earlier today and failed. Torture would come upon her very soon for attempt of running away from home in the king’s name. And to run away in cowardice would grant her an even more terrible punishment than normal. After hearing some guards talk about the new coming humans becoming the Woosoes new gods, the little furry girl has been assuming that these new gods will punish her for dragging them under the influence of the king, probably doomed to reside here by force for eternity. She caused all of this and though she will accept any just punishment or non-just punishment, the little furry girl fears greatly by all.

Despite this, instead of physical abuse, her new goddess, Rachel, is giving the girl a few pettings on the head. Confused the girl looks up to her with her purple eyes. Finally, she softened to Rachel’s tender touch. Is Rachel all she believes she is? Does Rachel not understand the sense of the girl’s pain? Why is this happening when all I should be in the mercy of this torture, the girl thought to herself? Why is Rachel being nice to her? So many questions at one time.

“Don’t be frightened.” Rachel said calmly, “I won’t harm you. What’s your name?”

“No…please. Please leave me be.” the little furry girl sniffled, “Leave me to my suffering as deserving as I have made it.”

“Come on, I just want to know your name.”

“Please, my goddess, I shouldn’t be speaking to you. I am worthless and you have come to do away with me as justly as any just immortal would do.”

“What? No! No, never!” Rachel felt her heart break at the sad words the little furry girl has said, “I would never harm anybody. Okay, maybe I did give one of my friends a sock in the stomach earlier, but really no one. What happened today with the king was something you did not deserve, not as far as I know. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Please tell me who you are. I’ll tell you my name if you like.”

At the moment, the little furry girl would not show her face, but keep trying to hide it away from being viewed. This is definitely a familiar scene for Rachel. She can see the innocence in the little girl’s eyes. She sees herself, her own reflection looking back. Rachel wanted to shed a tear for this girl but she just kept a straight face while brushing her hair through her fingers. Then Rachel held the little furry girl’s head and faced her to her own face and forced a smile as best as she could.

“My name is Rachel.” Rachel admitted, “And I am no goddess, but an average being from a different world.”

“I’m…I’m…” the little furry girl stuttered.

“You’re fine, no one is going to come in and harm you. You can trust me. I promise nothing bad is going to happen.”

Those were the same words Dreamfinder had said to Rachel back at the Disney expo in Anaheim, California when he asked her to volunteer on the stage. That promise he had made was unintentionally broken when Rachel began imagining herself flying in front of hundreds of people. She had been ridiculed not by Dreamfinder’s need to show the world what imagine can do, but by her own lack of faith and belief that she herself can do something good for herself and for all of the people around her. Would there be any difference for this unfortunate little furry girl? That is up to the little girl to decide. The little furry girl watches Rachel look at her. She, too, can see herself reflecting from Rachel’s almost teary eyes. Something about Rachel is making this little girl believe that she and Rachel have something in common, which they do.

“C-C-Coaxoch.” the little furry girl said.

“Huh?” Rachel is confused. What is that word?

“M-My name is Coaxoch KaZing. Coaxoch means ‘serpent flower.’ I am the king’s daughter.”

“What?!”


	6. Chapter 6

“What do you mean you’re the king’s daughter?” Rachel asked in shock.

“I mean King Fur KaZing is my father.” Coaxoch clarified.

“But how can he…what is his…why is he like this to you? What could you have possibly done to make the king treat you like this?”

“Live. Living my life as his daughter. He wanted sons, not daughters. I’m not his son, I’m his daughter. Not a prince, but a…uh…”

“A princess!”

“Y-yes.”

“So you’re saying the king has never given you any love just because you’re born a girl?” Rachel guessed.

“It is true.” said Coaxoch, “When my mother gave birth to me, the king became angry and then had my mother executed when I was four years old. He has never believed that I should ever have the right to rule so long as I’m a girl. He believes I’m not worth anything. Myself, my ideas, my existence…”

“I…I know exactly how you feel.”

“What?”

“My father was the same way with me. He had others daughters aside from me, but he also wanted sons. He loves my eldest sister because she’s more responsible with her future, then my younger sister because of her somewhat boyish style, and her younger twin brother because well…he’s a boy. He hated me because he thought I was going to be the last child he would have before having a boy. He’s always appreciated my siblings for the successes they have as both hard workers and the children he could have, yet my siblings have always tried to convince my father to share his love with me as he does for them. But he wouldn’t. If anything or anyone, I’m the one who is worthless in all of existence; therefore I shouldn’t even have the right to be called your goddess, not to you Woosoes or anyone. I’m nothing.”

“…Then I guess we are the same.” Coaxoch concluded, “Neither one of us can do anything to please anyone we share our love with nothing in return.”

Rachel looked into her own reflection through Coaxoch’s eyes. She had come to know the pain and animosity her own father cast onto her for all her life, but seeing how much younger Coaxoch is compared to her receiving to same kind of hatred breaks her heart most. Rachel gripped onto Coaxoch’s hand tightly, but not to the point of crushing her. A bond has begun to grow between her and the little furry girl, sharing the same feelings they have been given all of their lives. Seeing her like this just makes Rachel angry, seething at the terrible memories that are appearing in her head from her past. With every memory that came into her, tears have begun to form at the edge of her eyelids.

“No…we’re not the same.” Rachel growled through her teeth, “There is no hope for me from this point on, but there is still hope for you. As a princess, you deserve better than to be treated this way.”

“What are you saying, Goddess Rachel?” Coaxoch asked.

“I’m going to pardon you from this false justice of a prison and help you get the respect you have long waited for. So long as the king believes my friends and I are your gods and goddess, he will have to listen to us and do what we say no matter how badly he thinks of it.”

“It’s not going to matter whether or not he will listen to you, he will later gain acceptance back from my people like nothing has happened before.”

“What do you mean?”

“My father has always been aware of the prophecies and legends the Woosoes have carried for as long as our civilization has been in existence, and he, too, wishes to be named as one.” Coaxoch answered, “But to do that, he thinks that no other prophecy should ever come to between him while he continues to rule us or he would lose power. So he’s hidden away all of the manuscripts and secret diaries that has told about them, forced everyone to forget those prophecies and focus more on him and he will stop at nothing to keep it this way.”

“That’s not right.” said Rachel, “That’s no way to treat his kingdom.”

“I want the Woosoes to live in peace, believing in the things they wish to believe. All the way from the greatest stories of heroism and sacrifice to even the smallest things like…like flowers being able to bloom in a night’s length.”

“…Flora…”

“Huh?”

“You said your name Coaxoch means ‘serpent flower,’ right? That’s a terrible name to be given to a little girl and you have a heart so tender and kind. From now on, your name will be Flora. And that means ‘flower.’ ”

“Flora…I love it.”

********************************************************************************************************

The Dreamfinder and Figment have followed the guard’s directions to find the Wooso King’s dungeon. It still didn’t make much sense to them both to understand why Rachel would just go down there out of the blue. There is an estimated guess, but it doesn’t seem definite at this point. At the entrance of the door that leads down below to the dungeon, there is a Wooso warrior guarding it. They ask that guard if he has seen Rachel come by and if they could go down there. Of course the guard had to say yes. They are his gods; they deserve every kind of treatment. The guard brings Dreamfinder and Figment to the dungeon as he is asked to do. The way down is gloomy and dark, but not as much as the actual dungeon itself. Even the actual door that separates the world of Fillidore from the dungeon is pretty gruesome looking, too. Another Wooso warrior guarded the dungeon door from the inside and he is one tough guard who takes his job very seriously. The warrior who has escorted Dreamfinder and Figment knocks on the door and the other guard’s eyes appear through the small window.

“Who goes there? Friend or…not a friend?” the Wooso warden warrior in the dungeon said.

“Frank! Seriously? I was just here ten minutes ago!” said Denny the guard who escorted Rachel earlier and now Dreamfinder and Figment, “Our gods are here to see someone in the dungeon, too.”

“As our gods command. And how am I supposed to know who is who? We literally look alike.”

“Denny, we’re Woosoes! We’re supposed to look alike! It’s in our blood!”

“Well exuuuuuuuuse me! I have to sit inside this dark stinking place everyday and night without being allowed to go outside and see the half-sun shining. What am I supposed to do about that?”

“How should I know? At least you get to sit inside the shade. I have to stand outside in the half-sun until dusk. My fur is nearly singed from that!”

The two Wooso warriors continued bickering and ranting at each other. It’s left Dreamfinder and Figment standing there feeling awkward of the situation. What is happening right now? This is pretty ridiculous. Two grown Woosoes working in service of the king acting like a bunch of little kids fighting over a toy. Somehow this has to stop right now.

“Uhh…gentlemen? Gentlemen!” Dreamfinder then whistled through his fingers to gain attention and said, “*Ahem* Gentlemen, I hate to interrupt your little…chat, but would it make you both feel better if you could switch jobs every other day?”

“Yeah, that way you two could get your fair share of shade and sunlight.” Figment concluded.

Denny and Frank looked at each other and realized that what Dreamfinder and Figment proposed is actually a really great idea! It would be nice to get a little bit of each accommodation every once in a while.

“That would grand!” said Frank.

“Absolutely!” said Denny.

“I guess that means that we can put in a good word for the king then.” Figment said confidently.

“Indeed, we can, Figment!” said Dreamfinder, “So now that we have got this all settled, may we enter the dungeon and find our friend?”

“As our gods command.” both Frank and Denny agreed.

Denny the dungeon warden opened the door from the inside and allowed Dreamfinder and Figment to come inside. Just like Rachel, they both saw how terribly treated the prisoners are sitting in the corners of their jail cells. Every prisoner they have passed they could hear them crying, moaning, and sniffling for mercy and compassion to come and bless them with a second chance of life. It is a terrible sight to see. It almost made Dreamfinder and figment wish they had decided not to come, but they had to if they wanted to find Rachel, which they do.

Finally, they come across a jail cell that is being guarded by two large warriors. Each one of them looks fiercer than the other holding their clubs and spears in case any Wooso were to come break into the cell or out. Because of how intimidating they look, Figment felt the need to hide halfway behind Dreamfinder. It seems only Dreamfinder should gather up the courage to speak to these to warriors.

“Pardon us, good sirs.” Dreamfinder began, “You haven’t seen a young women, or your ‘goddess,’ in your case, come by here would you?”

“Yes, my lords.” said one of the warriors, “Our loveliest of beloved of goddesses from song and legends is inside this cell talking to our lowliest prisoner who resides in it right now. She had arrived about five minutes ago.”

“Alright! We found her!” Figment cheered.

“Would it be alright if we could join them?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Of course you may.” said the other warrior guarding the cell door, “That is, if your bride wishes for your company at present.”

“Wha-?” Figment became shocked, but not as much as Dreamfinder did.

“WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! Wait a minute!” Dreamfinder exclaimed, “Rachel is not my bride! We’re not married at all! We’re not even close to…we had just met not too long ago!”

“Really?” one of the guards said, “We just assumed that you two were married since most of our legends of immortals involved married couples.”

“Yes, we did not think you two would be an exception.” said the other guard.

“Indeed. If I were given the chance to meet the perfect beauty fit for a bride to share a lifetime with, I would want her to shine brightly as heavenly as our Goddess Rachel would be. She would have to have a great sense of humor to lift me from this dark-infested job of a dungeon post and dance in a meadow full beautiful flowers glistening in the purest light brightly brimming than any immortal being would contain.”

“Uhhh…” Dreamfinder interjected.

Dumbfounded, the Dreamfinder just stood there quietly. Everything that Wooso warrior just said left him speechless. Sure, Rachel is wonderful woman so far as he is concerned considering they have just met, but he did not think something like this would come at him at this time. If Dreamfinder’s beard couldn’t hide his blushing underneath it for no one to notice, I don’t know what would. Still, the wonderful man smiled at the words the warrior said in regards to knowing what this Wooso plans to do for his future. Not every man, or male Wooso, wants to be a bachelor forever; they want and they need some girl they can love and support for the rest of their lives. Dreamfinder had hoped once that once he was able to collect enough funds from working at Scientifica-Lucidous he would find a beautiful woman he could call his own, but with his ongoing career of exploring new worlds and inspiring people to dream big he hardly found any time to do any of that. Maybe, if this keeps going on, he may never achieve that personal goal.

“That is so beautiful!” Figment sniffed, letting a tear fall, “Isn’t that right, Dreamfinder? Dreamfinder?”

“Hmm…oh yes, yes it is!” Dreamfinder exclaimed, “I do hope you find some female Wooso to fill your life with genuine happiness. Consider that a godsend blessing!”

“Thank you, my lord!” the love struck warrior thanked in glee, “That will surely help me!”

“I’m sure it will. Now may we go in?”

“Of course! Of course!”

The two guards opened the prisoner’s cell door for their two gods. After that whole conversation about switching jobs and lovey-dovey stuff, Dreamfinder had to sigh deeply in relief. As they entered, Figment noticed something about Dreamfinder and playfully tantalized him for it.

“You’re turning red, Dreamfinder.” Figment teased lifting his eyebrows up and down.

“I am not!” Dreamfinder hushed Figment harshly.

Inside the cell, just as the two Wooso warriors had told them, Rachel is sitting there on the filthy ground. They find her tenderly rocking the little furry girl in her arms like a loving mother would do for her child. As Dreamfinder watched her do so, perhaps Rachel may be something, no- someone he could keep his hopes up in sharing a life with. But he’s going way too far ahead of himself. They had just met so there is no reason to jump to the conclusion into having a relationship with her.

“Rachel?” Dreamfinder coughed.

Rachel hears Dreamfinder and Figment coming into the cell, greeting them with glistening teary eyes of great pity. She continued holding Coaxoch, now named Flora, as Rachel stood to her feet while her knees shook a little.

“Oh, hey guys.” Rachel said sadly.

********************************************************************************************************

“How did you find me here?” Rachel asked.

“We asked a couple guards outside to see where you were.” Figment replied, “Plus, we wanted to make sure you were okay and get you back in time for the feast.”

“Your kind, both of you. Thanks.” she smiled.

“Rachel, what are you doing in here?” Dreamfinder asked in a serious yet calming tone.

“I came to get some answers…from her.” Rachel said referring to Flora.

“Hey, isn’t that the same Wooso girl we found outside in the valley when the other Woosoes found us? The one the king sent to the dungeon when we arrived?”

“Yes, yes it is. This is Flora. Well, her original name was Coaxoch, but I renamed her Flora because it suits her better.”

“I like my new name better.” said Flora, still awake in Rachel’s arms, “My father named me cruelly when I was born.”

“There’s a lot to explain, but I think it’s best we go back to our room where no one would listen.” Rachel suggested.

“What a pretty name!” said Figment with delight, “I’m Figment! And this is my friend, Dreamfinder!”

“Hello.” Flora said shyly and whispered, “I know who you all are, even though you’re not gods as everyone else believes you are.”

“Rachel! You told her?!” Dreamfinder exclaimed in a hushed tone.

“Again, I’ll explain all of this in the bedroom.” said Rachel, “We should go now as soon as I tell the guards that I am pardoning her from her quote-on-quote ‘crimes.’ ”

“If that is the way you want it.” he sighed, “Let’s go.”

“Hey, why are you red?” she asked.

“Uhh…it’s the heat.” Dreamfinder started sweating, “R-Rachel!”

“Hmm?”

“I love your hair.”

“Thanks.” Rachel said, hiding her blush away with her flowered hair facing the Dreamfinder and Figment.

As Rachel passed by him with Flora in her arms still, Dreamfinder sees Figment making mushy hearts appear and starts making kissing noises. 

“Lover boy!” Figment teased.

“Hush up!” Dreamfinder hushed loudly.

Leaving the dungeon the warriors, surprised as they are for hearing Rachel giving pardon to Flora, or in their case Coaxoch, against the king’s command, allowed all four of them to leave the dungeon. The four friends returned to main hall on the way back their bedroom, but along the way, Flora happened to see her father in another room working on something in secret. It involved some sort of science with potions and bottles. Flora was able to see the king pouring a certain potion into three golden chalices. Gasping, she figured what the king is up to. Before Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment came along, Flora has always watched her father come up with ways to get the things he wants and put them to effect. The king is not exactly the kind of being to be fooled so easily. He sees all he can see and yet he does not always see his own daughter spying on him from the shadows. Flora always knew to lay low from KaZing’s watch so she wouldn’t get into trouble. But now that her three new friends are involved as soon-to-be victims to the king’s newest scheme for power, she feels all of this is her fault for ever meeting them in the first place. What she must have started she needs to finish.

Everyone made sure the bedroom door was tightly bolted after shutting it closed behind them. Nothing has changed in there while they were gone. Rachel had put Flora down knowing she is safe so long as Flora with them and away from the king, but Flora had to felt she should hold her hand in case anything else happens. Her tail twitched a little; she tried to hide it away from everyone in the room fearing someone may be watching them with or without the door closed…as if spying. But there isn’t. Everyone is altogether present and safe from listening ears hiding away from them.

“You okay, Flora?” Rachel asked.

Unsure if she is truly alright, Flora still replied, “Yes.”

Turning her attention towards the entire group Rachel began, “I don’t think KaZing is happy we are here.”

“What? Not happy?” Dreamfinder spoke, “But the king has greeted us as immortals and has given us great hospitality.”

“With a feast and everything!” exclaimed Figment.

“I know.” said Rachel, “But there is definitely something not right about him. And asking Flora about it sort of proves it. So long as we’re here, the king might do something terrible to us. And whatever it is, he doesn’t want any one of us or the entire Wooso clan to know.”

“So you are saying we should leave?” Dreamfinder guessed.

“No, no I don’t think so. Not yet. The Woosoes believe the king is a good person, but after hearing Flora’s side of the story and seeing some other things about him I think it’s best if we try to convince everyone otherwise about him.”

“He’s a terrible Wooso!” Flora admitted, “And I don’t like saying this even though it’s true, but he’s the worst father ever.”

“What did you say?” Dreamfinder asked in shock.

“King KaZing is your father?!” Figment, also in shock, said.

“Yes.” said Flora, “He treats me like I’m nothing. All the ideas I have that has to do with making Fillidore a better place he disregards them just like that. He is not the kind of Wooso everyone sees him as.”

“Then I guess it’s a bad idea to ask him about the geodesic sphere.” Figment pointed out.

“A what?”

“That’s right! I totally forgot about that.” Rachel exclaimed, “Flora, have you or any of the Woosoes seen the geodesic sphere? It’s a giant sphere with over a thousand tiny triangles for an outer shell and six legs holding it up.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think we ought to draw it out for her, Rachel.” Dreamfinder suggested.

Agreeing with Dreamfinder, Rachel takes out a sheet of paper from her logbook and a pencil and draws out the geodesic sphere, which in her term is the Spaceship Earth. It starts off as a plain circle, then a few horizontal lines are drawn and then few more lines cross those horizontals diagonally from both sides left and right, and finally six pegs at the bottom of the sphere to support its weight. And viola, the geodesic Spaceship Earth!

“Geodesic sphere?” Rachel asked Flora asked again.

“Uhh…I’m not sure I’m familiar with this geodesic sphere.” Flora replied.

“If she hasn’t seen it, then neither the king or the other Woosoes wouldn’t know about it either.”

Dreamfinder sighed, “Then I guess we will have to continue our journey and leave Fillidore tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t think that’s not going to happen.” Flora said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I have a bad feeling my father will do something to all three of you before you ever get the chance to leave.”

“Like what?” Figment asked, “What’s the worst thing he could do?”

“He could use some kind of spell to turn you into one of us.” Flora replied, “To make you three Woosoes just like me and torture you all forever.”

“Can he really do that?” Rachel asked.

“It’s possible.”

“I DON’T WANNA BE A WOOSO!” Figment freaked out, “I LOVE MY OLD SELF!”

“Figment, calm down!” Dreamfinder ordered, “I’m sure this is just a wild idea.” He turns to Flora and says, “Please say that it is.”

“I’m not completely sure.” said Flora, “There are other things he could do to you, but I’m too afraid to tell you.”

“Then we will have to keep our eyes completely open on him tonight at the feast.” Rachel proposed, “How soon is it from now?”

“It shouldn’t be long now.” Dreamfinder said, “It’s getting pretty late in the afternoon.”

Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard. Figment answered it and in came the king himself. Small gasps were made when everyone saw KaZing walk in, but not as big of a gasp as the king will make when he sees Flora standing next to Rachel.

“Hello, hello!” the king cheered as he came inside, “I just wanted to see if everything is alright and-GASP! GUARDS! The prisoner has intruded and is bothering the gods of their luxury!”

“Coaxoch didn’t escape!” Rachel yelled.

“What did you just say?”

“Coaxoch didn’t escape the dungeon. I pardoned her from her crimes. She is under my influence now and no one else’s.”

“Oh, I see.” the king said, gripping his fists with anger behind his back seeing to it that nobody notices, “Then is she to do anything as far as labor is concerned?”

“You mean community service? Flora- I mean, Coaxoch seems a bit young to be doing that sort of thing. She’s only a girl.”

“Yes, she is, but all pardoned prisons in the Wooso clan must serve at least three days of labor before being given the full grant to be free from their prison, as part of Wooso regulations, and that includes children, too. But you are the gods, and lovely goddess if I may say so myself, so you may choose what to do with that child. In the meantime, I have arranged some tailors to come in and have you three prepared for tonight. They will be here at any moment. The feast starts in a half hour. Don’t be late!”

And with that, the king left the bedroom in a cheery tone, perhaps a bit too cheery. Everyone stood there speechless. They didn’t know what to make of it. They were just talking about how cruel King KaZing must be and just waltzes in a good mood as if he were either trying to fake his way to their trusts or if Flora was wrong about him and he was being serious. He did seem to come in and out in a hurry. Then again, he has to prepare everything for tonight. It doesn’t make sense.

“What the heck did he just say about regulations?” Rachel asked.

“That all Woosoes including children who have been pardoned have to do a community service in order to be free.” Dreamfinder clarified.

“That’s not fair!” Figment exclaimed, “Children should be free automatically! In fact, children shouldn’t go to jail in the first place!”

“Well at least the king can do nothing against Flora’s well being anymore, so that’s a good thing.”

“So am I really safe?” said Flora, “Will my father not harm me anymore?”

“I hope so.” said Rachel, “But I wouldn’t keep my hopes up just yet if I were you.”

“Let me take the labor service.”

“What?” Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment exclaimed.

“If I do the service, I can gather all I will come to know and tell you what my father plans to do next. I want to do good for the Woosoes’ sakes, for everyone’s sake. Let me be your servant.”

“Well…" said Rachel, "okay. I don’t like doing it, but-”

The door knocked again. It must be the tailors the king sent over. This time Rachel opened the door and she, as well as everyone else, had guessed correctly. The tailors came in giggling with excitement to be at the presence of their gods and goddess. Respectfully, they bowed to them and then they got to work. The Wooso men took over Dreamfinder and Figment’s outfits while the Wooso women took care of Rachel’s. They have brought in the finest fabric woven in the Wooso civilization: silk, cotton, and linen. The women made sure not to mess up the flowers the little Wooso children had put in Rachel’s hair. It gave them the perfect inspiration on what color and style Rachel should wear at the feast. Flora stood by and watched the dress up happen, worrying what her father might be doing. For sure, she figures that preparing the feast is only a small matter he is working on.

“Flora.” Rachel called over the Wooso women, “Is it possible for you to bring me some water?”

“Sure!” said Flora, “I’ll go get some right now.”

Leaving the bedroom, Flora scurried along to do her service for Rachel. Little did she realize she is being watched. As Flora went on her own through the main hall, a hand came out from behind and covered her mouth. Screaming through that hand, she got pulled back with one of her arms behind her. When Flora turned her head, she found that her father is the one restraining her. It turns out that the king was outside waiting for Flora to come out sooner or later. He figured she was going to do whatever the gods would tell her since Rachel had pardoned her from her crimes in the dungeon. When the girl came, he sought his chance to pounce on his prey and take control over her for just a little bit.

“Peep a single word about what I have in store for you and our gods,” the king threatened in a hushed gruff tone, “and I will make you squeal to your last breath!”

KaZing let her go immediately and went on his way. Flora had been correct all along that the king is up to something. And now that he had been given the ultimate threat of her life, she has to choose for herself. Should she keep quiet and let Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment become victims of the king’s greed and wrath? Or should she stay true to them and have her life taken by her own father in the end? Frightened out of her wits, Flora hurried to the nearest fountain with an empty bowl, filled it with water, and ran back to the immortal’s bedroom.


	7. Chapter 7

Returning to the bedroom with the bowl of water, Flora finds her new friends dressed up in the finest clothing the Woosoes ever did see. Dressed in silk and linen robes, the Woosoes glorified at their work. If the gods like it, perhaps they might bless them with good fortune. In the earth people’s eyes, they would have mistaken the clothes as kimonos. They look like that as far as Dreamfinder is concerned mixed with the brown color you would see on a friar’s outfit. Figment’s outfit looks a little more of the long-tailed tuxedo pianists would wear when performing in a concert colored in yellow with red edgings. Finally, Rachel’s dress looks a bit like an Indian style without any of her body parts exposed. No, not Native American Indian, but India Indian. Woosoes sure do have a weird sense of cross-fashions.

Dreamfinder sees Rachel in her new dress and starts blushing again. She looks absolutely beautiful! The Woosoes really did a good job on her. Dreamfinder’s outfit, however, made him look like he was wearing a clump of large steamed towels fresh out of the dryer. He even has to leave his hat behind since it didn’t match well with the outfit, but he didn’t mind about that. Having a good time and making sure King KaZing won’t pull any tricks is what is most important. Looking at Rachel, almost staring, Dreamfinder couldn’t stop looking at her. The way Rachel stood and how she was dressed nearly made him melt along with his heart.

“You look absolutely stunning, Rachel!” Dreamfinder complimented.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Rachel smirked.

“What about me?” Figment flew in between them, “Do I look handsome enough?”

“Ravishing, Figment!” Dreamfinder smiled greatly. To the Woosoes, he said, “Thank you very much, my friends. That will be enough for now. We will see you tonight.” With that, the Woosoes left their gods in good spirits for doing a great service. When all the Woosoes but Flora have gone, he continued, “So are we ready?”

“I suppose so.” said Rachel, “Now remember, we are keeping our eyes completely open for anything suspicious. Anything the king or any Wooso involved with him does can happen at any given time.”

“Keep our eyes open?” Figment exclaimed, “I can do that! I’m the champion of keeping my eyes open for almost an hour!” Figment opens his eyes big and wide like how a cartoon character would show it on television. It looked kind of creepy for everyone else to look at, but it’s not hard to laugh at.

“Yeah, very nice Figment.” said Rachel in a slightly awkward tone, “Though, I don’t think we ought to make ourselves look obvious.”

“My father is very good at judging character.” said Flora, “He’ll notice any mood that doesn’t match the type of event. If he sees any of you with a frown, he’ll know something is up.”

“Okay, so what do we do then?” Figment asked, “Just stay happy?”

“If we must.” Dreamfinder replied, “Besides, Figment and I have to perform tonight. It would be hard not to be happy for even a brief moment.”

“Here’s your water, Rachel.” said Flora, “I have enough for all three of you.”

“Thanks Flora.” Rachel said, taking a sip out of the bowl of water and then giving it to Dreamfinder and Figment. “So yes, we are going to have to keep a good attitude going while we inspect him. And if that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to worry about ourselves suppose he does something to us during the feast.”

“That sounds like a plan!” Dreamfinder agreed.

“LET’S PARTY!” Figment exclaimed.

********************************************************************************************************

Escorted by the Wooso Warriors, the Dreamfinder, Rachel, Flora and Figment followed them to the king’s ballroom where the feast will be held. Well technically, Rachel and Flora followed the warriors to the ballroom while Figment and Dreamfinder took a ride on the palanquin the Woosoes provided for them. Why isn’t Rachel riding the palanquin? She’s too shy. She’s too shy to be seen parading into a room filled with people, Wooso or human, on a palanquin like she is the center of everything. Plus, there was only room on the palanquin for two persons. And Flora couldn’t go on the palanquin because if her father saw her on it, he’d get furious over it despite being in the presence of his gods. So it kind of works out for the girls in their term who prefer to be left behind a little rather than to be noticed by big crowds.

“Uhh…are you sure you don’t want to ride with us, Rachel?” Dreamfinder called to Rachel from the palanquin.

“It’s actually real fun!” said Figment.

“I’m good, thanks!” Rachel blushed and waved, “I prefer to walk.”

They stop at the door where behind it all of the Wooso, Khalizi, and Mochika tribes are to be gathered together to watch their immortals come in and be respectfully bowed to. As a servant, Flora attempted to run up to the doors and open them for her friends but Rachel stopped her. She gripped Flora’s hand tightly and told her she wanted Flora beside her in case anything terrible would happen. Flora respected her wish. A couple of the Wooso warriors stood up to the doors and opened them for their gods to enter. And when they opened, every Wooso inside cheered with joy. Their gods have arrived!

Every inch of the ballroom is decorated with banners, streamers, and flowers that have been grown locally. The food has been spread onto the table where Rachel, Figment and Dreamfinder will be sitting with the king. Plus, a stage has been set for Dreamfinder and Figment to perform their routine on. Everything has been unbelievably set into place within an entire day! The Woosoes themselves are all nicely dressed for the occasion. Even the king had some time to prep up for tonight. His crown is slightly larger than before crested with precious jewels and his kingly robe has a few elegantly embroidered stitching to make it look classy.

The warriors put the palanquin down along with Figment and Dreamfinder. With Rachel and Flora behind them, the four friends are brought to the table spread to sit with King KaZing. As Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment took their seats, the king noticed Flora coming up with them as well and he glared at her gravely with discontent from her presence. Flora, ever so afraid of her father and his desire for power and torture her, stopped and didn’t move a muscle as Rachel sat down next to Dreamfinder. Rachel noticed it immediately when she looked at Flora’s face and then to King KaZing who pretended to keep a straight face for her.

“My lords, I hate to burden you with this sort of question,” KaZing derided, “but must we dine with this…commoner of a child? After all, she is your new servant covered in rags.”

Guess who made Flora that way in the first place. The way KaZing had insulted his own daughter, and in front of his gods, in a way he would put it as kindly as possible, which was not as kindly as it could have been both shocked the three friends internally. Rachel, especially, became the most irritated. It’s like sitting at the dinner table back home in St. Peter’s Town with her dad badmouthing her in front of her family, her friends, and his own friends. Under the table Rachel’s hands clenched ready to let go of her steam and just shout at him. Dreamfinder and Figment are a little hurt on the inside hearing the king talk this way about Flora. No father should treat their children, especially their daughters, this way.

Rachel leaned forward towards the table for the king to see her and said, “First of all, KaZing, I do not appreciate you criticizing this girl for her appearance and her background. If you don’t have anything nice to say about her or any other Wooso, I suggest you keep it to yourself. She will dine with us tonight and that’s that!”

“Yeah! You got a problem with that?” Figment said.

“Very well.” KaZing grunts, “But she sits with you, my lady.” The king orders one of the guards to bring forth a pillow for Flora, or Coaxoch in the king’s eyes, to sit on. When another guard arrives the table in secret from the Flora and her friends, the king sneaked an order to him, “Keep an eye on the goddess.” 

Delighted, Rachel allows Flora to sit with her for dinner. All of the Woosoes who watched Flora sit with their goddess were amazed. In their minds they thought, “That has got to be the luckiest little girl in the world!” and “I wish that were my little Wooso child sitting with the gods!” This experience Flora is given is actually pretty spectacular. She is not exactly sitting with gods, but with three new wonderful friends. And even though Flora is born in royalty, she had never been allowed to sit at the royal table by choice under her father’s wishes since her mother had been executed. The only guilt she feels is sitting at the table with rags for clothing.

“Is something wrong, Flora?” Dreamfinder asked from behind Rachel’s back.

“As glad as I am to have dinner with you I’m not properly dressed for it.” Flora admitted, also talking behind Rachel’s back.

“Hmm…that can be adjusted.”

This is where the magic of the Dreamfinder begins. He imagines Flora wearing a beautiful gown fit for a princess. The dress is strapped with single fat ribbons on each sides, it’s entirely light pink with pink and red colored lilies on the skirt and woven ribbons on the top half, and a pink and red flower sits in between the top and skirt for dimension and style. Even her skin and fur has been cleaned up, too. Thanks to Dreamfinder, Flora is all set to dine with royalty even if it is just for one night.

“It’s amazing, Master Dreamfinder!” Flora smiled.

“Indeed.” said Dreamfinder, “You want to know what’s more amazing, though? Your imagination, or trick-pics as you call them. If you use that more than once, then it can help you solve the most drastic problems. Just trust in yourself and your mind and you’ll go farther in life than you have never imagined. Understand?”

“Yes sir!”

The king tensed with irritation over Flora’s granted wish as if he is overcome with jealousy. Mouth closed his teeth clenched with anger. This girl should not be even eating with us or wearing such pretty clothes, he thought to himself. Still, there are plenty of other things to occupy him from that girl, whom the entire Wooso clan has no idea of her birthright, entering his mind and sight. The event is about to start, so he might as well call forth the food. And so he did. The chefs come in with dishes both big and small. Much of the food is so different compared to most of which Dreamfinder, Figment, and Rachel are familiar with from back home. And yet Figment, who sat in between Dreamfinder and the king, was delighted to see some of his favorite food served right in front of him.

“Oh boy!” Figment cheered, “My favorites!”

“Blue potatoes?” Rachel remarked confusingly.

“Orange sandwiches?” Dreamfinder also remarked in turmoil.

“Pink cauliflower?”

“Yep, and just how I like them.” said Figment with triumph, “All it needs is some turquoise carrots if they have any. And maybe some green milk.”

Rachel looked at Dreamfinder in disgust, unease, and confusion. Could anything like that taste as good as it does back home in their original color? Seeing her face like that made Dreamfinder chuckle.

And then he reminded her, “Imaginary, remember?”

You can’t really argue with an imaginary friend eating foods out of the ordinary…like really out of the ordinary.

“Well…hopefully the food is as good as home’s.” said Rachel with unease.

“Perhaps it will.” said Dreamfinder with encouragement, “That’s the first step in sensing something with your imagination.”

“The only thing I’m good at using so far is my instincts. Besides, didn’t you just hear what the king said to Flora? Unbelievable!”

“I know. It’s terrible. Listen to me, Rachel. As close of an eye we’re going to keep on him, let’s just enjoy tonight and forget-” The word forget seems to makes Rachel look angrier to the point of gripping her fork tightly, bending it halfway like it’s nobody’s business. Wrong choice of words, probably. Dreamfinder reworded, “Uhh…look the other way for a while and try to have a good time.”

“Sure.”

“FELLOW SUBJECTS!” King KaZing shouts. Every one of the Woosoes turned their attention towards the king to hear his speech, “We are gathered tonight to celebrate the arrival of our gods and fair goddess. In addition, two of you gods will be demonstrating to us a piece of their culture so that we may be entrusted to follow in their footsteps and keep their tradition alive for the well being of our future Wooso children, their children, their children’s children, and so forth. Let us enjoy this night as if it were our last!”

The Woosoes cheered like crazy! Such a grand reception Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment are being given. Out of everyone in the room, only Rachel took suspicion to the king’s words. He said to enjoy the night as if it were their last. What did he mean by that, Rachel wondered. Taking Dreamfinder’s advice, however, she decided to leave it alone for a while. Maybe the king isn’t planning anything terrible right now despite Flora’s impressions. But that didn’t mean she was not going to keep her eyes on him.

But before the Woosoes served themselves to the food, the king raised a chalice filled with a pink liquid to the air. A toast is to be made in honor of the Woosoes newly arrived gods and goddess. All the other Woosoes did the same; they raised their own chalices to the air for the toast. This has become more than an honor for the three friends, much like a family reunion. 

That’s not what either Flora or the king sees in this event. Just before she had arrived to the god’s bedroom with Rachel and the others for the first time, she saw her father working on something in another room mixing something up and pouring them into three separate chalices. The ones she had seen before are the same chalices sitting on the table beside Dreamfinder’s, Rachel’s, and Figment’s plates! Only Flora knew of the king’s plans, but if she were to tell anyone about it, the gods and goddess especially, she would likely be killed. Flora fears the fact of death, but does she fear that more than knowing what her new friends are about to get themselves into under the king’s hand? What is Flora really afraid of now?

“But first, before we begin our consumption, I would like to propose a toast!” the king announced, “To our esteemed gods and goddess for whom we gladly welcome and hope they will provide a prosperous future for our kind!”

“TO THE GODS AND GODDESS!” the Woosoes shouted with delight.

To top off the toast, everyone took a sip out of their pink liquid filled chalices. Dreamfinder and Figment, unsure what the pink liquid will taste like, took their chalices and took a sip as well. To their surprise, the chalices are filled with pink lemonade! Rachel took her chalice into her hands. Flora gasped a little, hoping that gasp would not grab the king’s attention. Out of everyone in the trio, the little furry girl began fearing for Rachel the most. She had been so kind to her like any respectful elder sister would be for their younger siblings. To see Rachel drink into the chalice makes Flora’s skin and fur stand stiff in great terror. Just like Dreamfinder and Figment did, Rachel drank from the chalice. Flora’s head sank down, defeated by her worst fear for her friends’ well-beings. Rachel took notice of Flora’s dismay. Something about her mood is making the ’goddess’ feel sad as well.

“You okay, Flora?” Rachel asked.

“I’m fine.” Flora said in gloom, unable to say anything else. If she says too much, it will mean her doom.

“Come on, you can tell me. Was it something I did?”

Flora didn’t say another word. Hope has been drained out of her system for a reason unknown to the human girl. So Rachel decided to leave her be for a while and enjoy the rest of the night. She took a glance at her empty chalice, being that she had been thirsty enough to drink the whole thing at once just now, and began to think. Why is Flora feeling this way, Rachel thought to herself.

Soon every one of the Woosoes and Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment has got food on their plates and are happy with the way things are turning out. So far, the king has been in a good mood. Perhaps it is best to let the suspicions of his terrible side go and accept the fact that he may not be evil after all. Maybe Flora is wrong about her father the whole time. But then you come to think back on how badly the king has treated Flora beforehand. Maybe Flora was only saying that to get attention for some kind of revenge. Maybe Flora isn’t really a princess at all! All of these thoughts are running through Rachel’s mind, cramping it with too many arguments. She didn’t want to jump into any conclusions just yet. Besides, after hearing the king insult Flora as if he had never seen her or took any interest in her background before there is a lot more to think about him than not to.

Unbelievably, the food is delicious! The blue potatoes, orange sandwiches, and pink cauliflower really do taste both as good as they do and in the original style back home. Rachel probably needed to open her mind a little not just on image, but on taste as well; two of which provides imagination: taste and sight. Figment has been taking both seconds and thirds of each! But not when he and Dreamfinder were about to begin their performance.

“ATTENTION!” the king shouted, “ATTENTION ALL! It is now time for our two gods to begin the act they have promised to perform for us. A new spectacular notion in which they call music! Master Dreamfinder and Master Figment!” 

All of the Woosoes, excited as they are for what Dreamfinder and Figment are about to do, could not make heads or tails out of what music is. The king couldn’t blame them. Their confusion is as intense as his. Still, all of the Woosoes cheered for Dreamfinder and Figment as they got out of their pillow seats and rushed to the stage. Even Flora felt the need to clap for since she, too, is intrigued with the idea of learning a piece of a new culture, a culture where Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment came from. Only Rachel remained in her seat as she watched her two friends run up there ready to make fools out of themselves.

“Thank you everyone!” Dreamfinder exclaimed in confidence, “My flying friend and I are so glad you all can make it here tonight. We are so excited to show you all what us persons from Earth do in our spare times.”

“We hope you’ve got your dancing shoes on, because our music is going to take you out of this world!” Figment also exclaimed.

“WHAT?” the Woosoes screamed with worry, believing that the gods are going to take them away from their homes in Fillidore.

“Uh…not literally!” Dreamfinder chuckled with embarrassment and clarified, “It’s an expression meaning that our music will be so good you all might like it very much.”

“Oh, okay. I see. That makes sense.” the Woosoes understood.

Rachel had to laugh a little at this. It’s humorous to see one person react to a misunderstanding like that, but with an entire civilization it’s just too hilarious! 

“Moving onward,” Dreamfinder spoke, “Figment and I have composed a song and a little dance to go with it. We hope every one of you will enjoy watching us as we will enjoy performing for you. Hit it, Figment!”

Given the signal, Figment duplicated himself into four Figments while Dreamfinder dreamed up some instruments for the Four Figments to play with. Dreamfinder played the piano, which in a sense sort of impressed Rachel just a little bit. The Figments each has their own instrument to play. One of them has a trumpet, the second a chello, the third has drums, and the last has a tambourine. They begin their song in a rhythmic beat, something new for both the Woosoes and for Rachel as well. In all of Rachel’s life, she had heard some rap and hip-hop (to which she never liked as mush as everyone else on Earth does) as well as a bunch of different other genres, but not like this. It is a Figment and Dreamfinder original; with a mix of classical, ragtime, some jazz, and a little acoustic.

But what has impressed Rachel even more is Dreamfinder’s singing. She had heard some people sing really well, but not like Dreamfinder’s. Not too high, not too low, but in a perfect pitch. Rachel blushed. The singing was enough to make Rachel smile quite a bit. As he sang, Dreamfinder took notice of Rachel’s blushing sitting all the way at the table. It’s hard for him to not smile while he’s singing. In fact, it’s getting hard for Dreamfinder to not laugh during the performance, unless of course he’s presenting a comedy at the same time. Taking great delight in Rachel’s smile, the Dreamfinder kept on playing his piano. The Figments, meanwhile, are having a ball with the song! The Figment with the tambourine keeps banging the instrument on his head as well as using his tail to tap onto one of the other Figment’s back spikes like a xylophone. The one with the cello is swishing the bow back and forth like he is harshly brushing somebody’s teeth. The Figment with the trumpet poured bubble liquid into the bell (the front of the trumpet) and then blew up a storm of bubbles throughout the entire banquet hall. And the final Figment with the drums banged on every tom and cymbal attached to each other. The Woosoes cheered and danced at the tune and its lyrics. This new feeling of music is definitely something that they are going to have to create more often. The concert is an instant success!

Every one of the Woosoes are away from their tables except for Flora and the king. Taking a glance to her right, Rachel notices that even though the king had been super excited about the discovery of music he doesn’t seem so enthused about it. Maybe music doesn’t catch on as much of his interest as he thought it would be. KaZing took notice of Rachel staring at him, which made Rachel quickly turn her head back forward hoping he didn’t notice her at all. The eyes he stared at her with were both stern and full of concern. Rachel wanted to know what is going on in the king’s mind, yet at the same time she didn’t. Any sick twisted thought the king would have in his brain would only remind her of her experience with her parents. She joined Dreamfinder and Figment on this adventure to get away from all the negativity back home and back home is where that negativity should stay. But while Rachel was thinking of that experience back home letting the music Dreamfinder and the Figments are playing fade, she did not realize until now that King KaZing had switched his seats to sit next to her. He looked at her in a pretty weird way in the form of a grin. Rachel, wanting to be polite, tried to grin back at him like they know what they were going to be talking about. But she doesn’t know all. Even Flora has no idea what the king might be plotting in his mind right now. Awkward…

“My lady,” the king started, “I hope you are having a splendid time tonight as I am.”

“Uhh…what level of splendid time are you getting at?” Rachel asked, “ ‘Like super-happy-fun-time’ splendid time? ‘Best-time-of-your-life’ splendid time? Or…slightly less than those two?”

“No need to feel out of place around me, your loveliness. I only wish to have a talk and ask some questions I’ve been meaning to ask you when you had arrived earlier today.”

“O…kay. Shoot.”

“You said that you and your lordships are travelers from a different realm. May I ask where you were intending on going?”

“ ‘Were?’ More like ‘are.’ Figment, Dreamfinder, and I don’t plan on staying here for long.”

“Are. Very well. Where ‘are’ you going exactly?”

“Ummm…we are- uh, we are…uh, searching for a monument to…see. We’re tourists…on vacation. Even gods have got to take a break from being almighty and powerful, you know. We’re actually in sort of a hurry because…this particular monument has…has a limited time showing where afterwards it’s never going to show itself anywhere else again…ever. That’s why we are planning to leave by the end of tomorrow at the latest.”

“I see.” said the king, and then while leaning over to Rachel’s face he asked, “What sort of monument is it? Something powerful? Something magical?”

“Uhhhhhh…classified! It’s forbidden for the gods to tell all mortals of all kinds of this sort of thing. We don’t want to…start giving anyone any ideas of searching for it and having something…drastic happen. No more questions!”

“Very well. Coaxoch! You’ve been abiding with our lords for quite a bit. Do you know anything about this monument?”

Flora tensed up. Just minutes ago, she had been asked about the Spaceship Earth where she didn’t even know what the heck it is and replied saying she had never seen it before. But since Rachel drew a picture of it for her, showing her exactly what it looks like, it makes it very hard for Flora to lie to her own father, the king about not seeing something she did see. Flora looked at Rachel with worry. It was bad enough she did not speak up to Rachel and her friends about the drinks. Now she has to decide this: ‘will she stand up for her new friends against her family’ or ‘will she chicken out again and be punished later on in secret by the king?’ ” To go on, Flora would finally take a chance to face her biggest fear and stand up for herself for once in her life. It was time to get back at the king just a little for how she treated her. Finally, Flora made her decision.

Flora sighed, “So long as I am under my lady’s influence, I do not have to answer to you and your irrelevant questioning. If my lady does not wish to tell you her secrets, then you leave her be.” Leaning over Rachel, Flora said to the king’s face, “I also suggest you back your face away from my lady, for you are making her feel uncomfortable. And lastly, my name is Flora now. If you don’t like it, then tough!”

Angered, the king backed away and returned to his pillow seat at the end of the table. Rachel is surprised at Flora’s new attitude coming out of nowhere in the banquet hall, in front of so many Woosoes, in front of and right at the king’s face! Incredible! Flora sat back down on her pillow feeling both proud and uneasy of her actions. It is times like this that makes her unsure if she did the right thing. Rachel had a different case in mind.

“Alright, Flora!” Rachel smiled, “High five!”

“NO, PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” Flora exclaimed.

“Oh! Oh no, Flora. This isn’t an attacking thing. It’s what people back on earth do sometimes when they are…excited or happy over an accomplishment. Here, give me your hand.”

The furry little girl holds out her hand for Rachel to position in front of each other. With Flora’s palm and her fingers all spread out, Rachel quickly patted her own palm onto Flora’s gently. That’s a high five.

“See?” Rachel said, “Nothing to fear about a high five. You can always make a soft high five, a very hard one, or an in-betweener. Your choice.”

“Amazing!” said Flora with astonishment, “Can I try?”

“Sure!”

Rachel holds up her hand ready for Flora to take her first shot at giving a high five. She expected a soft one from the little furry girl, but what Flora gave her was the complete opposite. Flora gave Rachel the hardest high five she had ever been given! Did it really hurt an “all powerful goddess” of the Wooso clan? Yes.

“Agh!” Rachel cried, shaking her hand, “Not bad! Not bad for your first try. I’m really proud of you, Flora! How do you feel?”

“Pretty good.” said Flora with confidence, “But I’m still not sure about my father’s reaction when I told him away. He might be even more mad than usual.”

“Probably. But that still doesn’t mean it’s terrible to stand up for yourself when you really need to. People like your father should never have the right to treat you the way you have been all your life.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You said your father was the same way with you. Did you ever stand up for yourself?”

“Well…sometimes. Not a whole lot. Just at the times where it counted most.”

“Oh.”

********************************************************************************************************

The feast concluded after Dreamfinder, Figment and the Figment clones finished their performance. Saddened that it was over, the Woosoes groaned. It was time to go home and into bed for everyone in the Wooso, Mochika, and Khalazi clans. Rachel, Flora, Dreamfinder, and Figment are especially tired. Then again, it’s the boys that are more tired than the girls seeing as they used up their energy playing and singing their music. Soon the banquet hall became empty like a ghost town leaving nothing but torn down streamers and pulled-over tablecloths. The Wooso warriors have escorted the four friends back to their room. They are left alone with nobody else with them. And thank heavens for that. It is likely that none of the four friends would want anyone to come in and bother them again for the night, especially when they have the leave the next day.

“Whew! I’m all tuckered out.” said Figment.

“Me too.” Dreamfinder agreed, “Whoever thought holding a concert for an entire population could take all the steam out of you?”

“That’s why I never really go to concerts.” said Rachel, holding Flora in her arms, “Too much going on.”

“So you didn’t like our concert?”

“Yes, I did like it! I liked it a lot. Except the part where I didn’t get hear all of it since KaZing kept asking me questions about what we are doing, or as he put ‘were’ doing as if he intends on keeping us all here.”

“I told you my father has something planned to take you all prisoner.” said Flora, “He won’t rest until his schemes are successfully fulfilled.”

“That’s not good.” Figment tensed up nervously. “At this rate, he might do something terrible to us tonight while we’re not noticing!”

“Wait. King KaZing was bothering you, Rachel? Like you especially?” Dreamfinder worried over.

“His face was right at my face asking me where we are traveling to, but I didn’t exactly tell him specifically.” said Rachel, “I didn’t give him the name of the place or the directions. Mainly because we don’t know where that thing goes. Talk about personal space, why doesn’t he? I’m just glad Flora was able to get me out of it. You two should have seen her defending me against the king. She totally nailed him!”

“What right does he have invading your personal space? For goodness sake, you’re a women with rights of respect!”

“Yeah…this may sound a little obvious to ask, but why do you care about that so much?”

“Well, since we are traveling together now I feel that it’s part of my responsibility to keep you out of harm’s reach.”

“Ha! Sure it is…” Figment teased Dreamfinder under his breath.

“Look.” Dreamfinder sighed heavily, “I’m too tired to be thinking about this right now. Let’s all get some sleep and by morning we’ll figure out what to do then. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out of here before any of the Woosoes wake up.”

“Does that mean you’ll all be gone and I’ll be all alone again?” Flora asked.

“I’m afraid so, Flora.” Rachel said sadly. “But let’s not worry about that right now. Tomorrow’s a new day. Who knows? Maybe it will turn out better than today.”

“Okay.”

“So who’s sleeping on the bed?” Figment asked.

“You and Dreamer can take it. I’ll sleep on the chair with Flora.”

“What?” Dreamfinder uttered with surprise, “No, I think the women should sleep on the bed. Or at least Figment and Flora.”

“Well…Flora looks like she has never slept on a bed in quite a while.” Rachel figured, “But there’s only one chair in here.”

“So I’ll sleep on the ground.”

“You’re nuts.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Dreamfinder chuckled, “You take the chair, Rachel. I’ll be fine with just a blanket and pillow.”

“Well…okay. If that’s alright with you.”

With the sheets opened on the bed for Flora to sleep in with Figment, Rachel placed Flora there and tucked her in. The bed is made with all the finest and softest materials the Woosoes could muster up. In there Flora, sleepy as she was, looked very cozy laying down in that bed. It did not take long for Figment to get comfortable there, too. He nuzzled his head down in those pillows and curled into a little ball under the blankets. Dreamfinder, even though he said it would be fine, is finding it difficult to make himself snug to sleep on the ground. Still, he bothered to do so for the sake of his friends’ enjoyment. Rachel took a blanket and pillow and sat down in that chair ready to fall asleep and forget all the terrible feelings she had faced today. Finally, everyone is able to relax for the night.

But it didn’t last long for one of the persons in the group. A small knocking on the door has sounded and only one person in the room had heard it. Hearing this, Rachel opened her eyes halfway. She had to make sure no one else in the bedroom had heard the door knocking. Thankfully, there was not a single budge of movement. She stood up from the chair and tiptoed across the room to the bedroom door determined not to wake anyone up from their slumber. When Rachel opened the door, she finds a couple of Wooso men and women standing there with certain items with them. What are they doing here at this time of the night?

“Did you all get what I asked for?” Rachel whispered.

“As you have commanded us to bring to you, O great goddess.” said one of the Wooso women, assuring they had everything they needed for whatever reason there is to do so.

“Good, come on in quietly. We have work to do.”


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, as the sun is shining through the windows, all of the Woosoes are awake fully reenergized after last night’s grand event. Every bit of the leftover scraps of food and decor from the banquet hall has been cleaned up. All seems as normal as it should be. As for Dreamfinder and his friends, everything should be right as rain. Or is it?

Figment is the first to wake up from bed. He stretched and yawned big leaving no hesitation come between him and letting himself loose with his muscles. Jumping out of the bed while Flora and Rachel are still sleeping, he flew to the mirror hanging on the farthest wall away from him. A small table stood underneath the mirror with a pitcher of water, a bowl and a small towel. Pouring the water into the bowl and then wetting the cloth into it, Figment uses the towel to wipe his face to help him wake up quicker and freshen up his dragon skin. He loves to see his dragon scales gleam when it’s clean under the sunlight. But today, that is not what he sees. He noticed that when he put the towel on his face, it did not actually touch him thoroughly like there is some kind of barrier blocking the water from cooling him off. As Figment lowered the towel, he spots something awfully wrong about him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!” Figment screams.

The royal purple scales no longer covered his face, but very thick hair! Little stubbles are just about covering up his crocodile nose while the rest of his face is growing hair three times the size of those stubbles. Never in Figment’s life has he ever heard of a dragon with hair; of course that’s his own experience. He tried washing his face off again believing what he is seeing is still just a dream, but it is no use. The hair is real! What is he becoming?

The screams have wakened up Rachel and Flora from their bed and chair. They see Figment tense up with fright at the mirror. When the dragon turned around to face his friends, the girls screamed as well.

“Figment!” Flora screamed.

“What’s wrong with your face?!” Rachel also shouted.

“I don’t know!” Figment cried, “I was waking up from bed, I went to the mirror to wash my face, and then the next thing I saw was my face covered in hair! How did this happen?”

“I was right all along.” Flora said in shame.

“What?” Rachel and Figment said at the same time.

“This is my father’s doing. Earlier yesterday when we left the dungeon, I saw my father mixing up a potion and pour them into three chalices. Those chalices were the ones you three drank out of last night at the feast. And now my worst fear has come true: you are all turning into Woosoes!”

“Why didn’t you tell us this?” Figment yelled, “Why didn’t you tell us the drinks were drugged?”

“I-I have been meaning to tell you, but I was so afraid of what my father would do to me. I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Flora.” Rachel encouraged, “I’m sure we’ll settle this out.”

“You don’t understand, Rachel!” Flora yelled, “Because you are turning into Woosoes, you are all stuck here! And soon, my father will send his guards in here to take you and turn you into slaves to the day you die! My father has won. And there is nothing we can do to stop him now.”

Unable to keep her feelings in any longer, Flora cried to tears. She feels that all of this is her fault alongside with the king’s for not telling the truth. She may have had the courage to speak her mind against KaZing last night at the feast, but not when Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment drink the drugged pink lemonade from the chalices. Flora couldn’t even find herself needing to lift up her head. She didn’t want to show her face to her friends while she is crying. It signified to her as a weakness that could not be overcome with hope.

A look like that is something Rachel is familiar of. That is the same look she had back home on Earth when facing against her parents. There have been times when Rachel wanted to speak up against her parents, but her courage would always douse to embers leaving her confidence to ashen into dust. But this is not the time to sulk into her own family problems. If anyone has a problem with family stuff, it’s the king.

“I haven’t known every one of you for long,” Rachel said, “but if there is one thing I have come to learn so far: it’s that there is a possibility for anything. There should be an antidote to change us back to normal. If we can find that, then we can convince everyone how big of a fraud KaZing is and beat him at his own game. Dreamfinder, what do you thi-…Dreamfinder?”

But Dreamfinder did not answer. In fact, he’s not even in the room at all! Where did he go? Where is he?

“Hey! What happened to Dreamfinder?” Figment asked.

“He could either be freaking out over his new look, be taken prisoner first, or both.” Flora assumed.

“Hmm…this isn’t right.” Rachel mumbled to herself. Then Rachel said aloud, “We’ve got to go find him! Hopefully, though I doubt it, he hasn’t found out about this curse yet. Flora, would you happen to know where your father keeps his secrets away from the other Woosoes?”

“There is a secret trapped door hidden underneath the throne in the throne room. That’s where he plans his schemes and the witchcraft to pursue them…. and also where he disciplines me.”

“He won’t be disciplining you any longer once we deal with him. That is if it’s alright with you, Flora.”

“If it is needed, then yes. There is also another entrance at the back door of the secret room. The doors are big enough for an entire crowd to walk through, but it is heavily guarded and well hidden.”

“Interesting.”

“Come on! Let’s go find my pal!” Figment exclaimed with confidence, “I can’t go on in life without him.”

“No, I’ve got a better idea. I’m going to go find Dreamfinder.” said Rachel, “You two need to do something for me that will greatly effect this mission.”

“But Rachel, Dreamfinder’s my friend and my creator. If I go with you, we’ll be able to find him quicker.”

“There will be other times where I’ll need you to help me find him, Figment. But right now, I need you to do this one thing for me.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“Come here.”

The three friends huddled together to hear Rachel’s plan. Everything Rachel is saying is all hush-hush. No one else is listening except for Flora and Figment. One would think that the way Rachel is pronouncing her words are like ‘swee-swee-swee-swee,’ but the plan sounds all clear for her friends to understand. They each know what they have to do and there is no time to waste if they want it to work.

“Alrighty then!” said Figment now taking flight out of the bedroom, “Let’s go, Flora, before we become permanent residents!”

“I’m coming, Master Figment!” said Flora, following him.

The two of them are out of the bedroom while Rachel went off on her own to the throne room. In a sense, Dreamfinder had saved Rachel from her definition of madness that is her life on Earth. It’s her turn to find and save him.

“I’m coming for you, Dreamfinder.” Rachel murmured to herself, “Hang in there.”

********************************************************************************************************

Darkness has voided away the light from entering into this particular room. Everything in there is as pitch black as a midnight sky that had never been cleared away. There is nothing in that room except for Dreamfinder, who still sleeps on a different surface other than the floor.

When Dreamfinder has woken up, he figured he would wake up on the floor still and see Rachel, Figment, and Flora still sleeping soundly on their cushioned beds. But that is not what he is seeing now. Instead of a sunlit bedroom with him and his friends alone in there, he finds himself in a dark room with a lamp in a candlelight towering over him. He is the one who is all alone, strapped and bounded to the seat beneath him with ropes. Surprised at the outcome of his awakening, Dreamfinder did not know what to make of it. This had never happened to him before.

“Wh-What the-? What is the meaning of this?” Dreamfinder shouted, “Who did this?”

Suddenly, a chuckling is heard from behind Dreamfinder. It sounded a little familiar, though he hopes it is not who he thinks it is. The chuckling came closer and closer behind him to the point where Dreamfinder felt the need to shout out again.

“Show yourself!” Dreamfinder yelled.

“Welcome, Master Dreamfinder!” said the chuckling voice, “Did you have any pleasant trick-pics? Or ‘dreams’ as you call them?”

“You!”

“Yes, it’s me.”

The person responsible for the chuckling came towards the Dreamfinder with a green torchlight in his hand. It is the only light source in the room and it is enough to reveal the bearer’s face: King KaZing, in person.

“Surprise!” KaZing exclaimed.

“KaZing!” Dreamfinder shouted angrily, “What is this all about? Why am I strapped here? This is inducingly uncomfortable!”

“Pity. I figured with you being a god, you’d find any kind of material worth your comfort. I suppose I underestimated you seeing as that you are not a god at all!”

“How did you figure that out?”

“While you and your purple beast were playing with your do-dads, I have watched your ’goddess’ ’ hand get slap by Coaxoch’s hand-”

“Her name is Flora now!”

“Whatever. Coaxoch slapped your girl’s hand and your girl felt pain come upon it. No god should feel pain when they are struck.”

“I don’t know what this ‘hand-slapping’ thing is, but I guarantee that this tops the worst thing imaginable. Now where am I and what have you done with my friends?”

“Oh not much. I just gave them a little taste of something I have given you.”

“What do you mean?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Have a look in the mirror and you’ll see for yourself.” KaZing replied.

The king held out a handheld mirror from his back and aimed the glass at Dreamfinder. Looking at his reflection, Dreamfinder screamed with shock! He is turning into a Wooso just as Figment and Rachel are! Aside from his beard, there is more hair coming out of his face and on his arms. The fur on his arms is making his outfit feel tighter for him to fit in, nearly ripping it apart. The growth is happening rapidly to the point of scaring Dreamfinder even more.

“Wha-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!” Dreamfinder shouted.

“I’m simply making you and your friends a part of the family.” KaZing replied, “You are right about one thing at the beginning when you arrived: there may be no chance my kingdom could take on your Earth people by waging war against it, but that should not mean I can’t take what is theirs. Now I can stop the process if you tell me this: Where are you planning on going and what power does this place hold that I can use to govern my kingdom? I want a clear and straightly thorough answer out of you.”

“No! I-I won’t talk!”

“If you don’t talk, then you will remain here in Fillidore and I will make you, your winged reptile, and that girl my slaves for the rest of your lives! Though Rachel is quite lovely for what you call yourselves as ‘humans.’ Who knows? If she cooperates so willingly, then perhaps I’ll make her my queen.”

“YOU WILL NOT LAY A FINGER ON HER!”

“What’s the matter, Dreamfinder? Do you suddenly have feelings for that wench? It would be a shame to hurt those feelings and to have you watch her fall into her doom along with the dragon. Answer my questions or you and your friends will all be suppressed under my hand. Primarily, your girl.”

“Rachel is strong. I know she is. And I also know that at least she has some sense in her head rather than to fall for you and your fiendish tactics. They will come for me. Especially Figment. He always does.”

“We shall see. In the meantime, suppose none of your friends shows up for you, how about you tell your king your plans on seeing this monument, as Rachel called it last night.”

“My king?!” Dreamfinder shouted, “The Wooso who took advantage of our trust and our kindness to later imprison us so you can stand up at the top with power? The Wooso who abuses his own daughter just because he has no son to take the throne when you’re gone? You MUST be joking!”

Shocked, the king backed away. He had never mentioned anything about him being Flora’s father to anyone!

“That’s right!” Dreamfinder said, “I know what your deal is with your familiar status. Flora told us everything about you and how you treat her and your people. You hide away all of your kingdom’s precious knowledge; the things that inspire everyone here while they cower in fear at your presence. And in Flora’s case, you turn every one of her fears, hopes and dreams into a nightmare and a weapon. If anyone should be ruling this world, it should be Flora, not you!”

“SILENCE!” KaZing screamed, “I rule this civilization! I rule ALL of Fillidore! Tell me your secrets or I WILL EITHER DESTROY OR TAKE YOUR BRIDE FOR MYSELF!”

Dreamfinder looked down and thought what he should do now. Should he tell the Wooso king about the geodesic sphere? Or should her not say anything and watch him hurt Rachel, Figment, and Flora? Knowing the Dreamfinder, the answer is pretty obvious.

“First off, about Rachel, she’s not my bride, nor will she be yours. No one is and I’m sure no one will so long as you treat the Woosoes this way.” Dreamfinder admitted, “And second…I’ll…I’ll tell you what I know. Just don’t hurt them, please.”

“Good.” The king panted, “Finally…begin.”

********************************************************************************************************

The throne room is not far from the bedroom. After walking around the area so much yesterday, Rachel has gotten the idea of which room is where. She trots through the main hall, making sure the Wooso warriors are not around to catch her. There are two warriors guarding the entrance to the throne room, one of them being the warrior chief. With just two guards being so large, it would mean that the doors are heavily guarded to the human eye. If anything is going to get Rachel inside, it’s smarts.

The guards watched keenly with their eyes fully aware of anything that would come their way. The way Rachel had thought about getting past those two is pretty simple. She reached into her pocket and took out what she had been saving since yesterday: The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups candy bar she first wished for with her necklace. Rachel opened the wrapping to let the aroma set out into the air. The scent of the candy flew into the air to where the warrior’s noses could smell it. They took a whiff of the peanut butter and chocolate scent and relish over it. Their mouths began to drool with delight. The warrior guards wanted the taste of the peanut butter chocolate so badly! Rachel then threw the candy bar across the room away from the door. Seeing that the bar was the source of the delicious smell, the warriors chased after the chocolate, leaving their post unoccupied. This is Rachel’s chance to get inside the throne room unnoticed.

While the guards are gone, Rachel takes a peek inside the throne in case there are other guards guarding the throne. Flora said that the trapped door is hidden underneath the throne itself. That is Rachel’s target. No one is in the room. So Rachel quietly closes the door behind her so the Wooso warriors wouldn’t notice and runs up to the throne. The throne is made of dried mud and stone. It would be harder to just push it out of the way instead breaking and kicking it apart. Yet, it has the king’s smell for however long he had been sitting there all these years. BLEH! As much as Rachel wanted to puke from the smell, that is going to have to wait.

She pushed away the throne far enough, assuming that the trapped door would have to open toward her. She finds the trapped door and pulls it open. Inside the hole is very pitch dark all the way down. The only way to get in the trapped door and out is the ladder that stands in there. Rachel lowers herself down the ladder where is seems like she is entering a world of darkness. The walls closed in around her as she went down. There is nothing but moldy mud-bricked walls surrounding her fowling the air so putrid, Rachel had to free one of her hands to cover her nose with her shirt and continue downward. Even the ladder itself felt a little sticky to the touch. Probably been covered by the king’s fingerprints for so long, some other icky things caught onto it. It’s possible that KaZing does not take total pride in personal hygiene. But Rachel continued on, not willing to give up on her host, the Dreamfinder.

Finally, Rachel got to the very bottom of the ladder where behind her stood a one-way tunneled path. Up ahead there is a wooden door with a window barred with metal poles like a typical prison door. She heard voices murmuring in a blur from a distance. The voices became clearer to hear the closer Rachel went on through that oath. Soon she able to recognize the king’s and Dreamfinder voices and later realized what they are talking about. She can hear Dreamfinder explaining to the king about Spaceship Earth. Hearing and seeing Dreamfinder talk about their plan in a gloomy tone has made Rachel feel terrible inside both personally and generally. She hated how Dreamfinder is forced to tell the Wooso king their plan to find the geodesic sphere, but even more Rachel hates seeing the look on his face full of sadness and regret. She has to get him out of there somehow, one way or another!

The door is locked and the key is gone. Rachel is no lock picker, so she has to break the door down by force. The only thing is that if she tried to break it down more than once, it would alert Dreamfinder and the king and let them know she has come to the rescue. Rachel has only one chance to get inside, so she has to think this over. She is not a very strong kicker, she would break her knuckles and fingers if she punched through the door, and she would result in a lot of pain on her arms if she tries to ram herself through. This is a good time for Rachel to use her magic wishing necklace.

A clear quiet concentration is the key to getting what she wants. She did her best to mute out the king and Dreamfinder’s conversation until her mind becomes totally blank with black. In her mind, she imagined herself wearing protective armor and holding a powerful shield to bash through the door. And just like that, just as it did with the candy bar, Rachel’s wish came true. When she opened her eyes she saw herself wearing the armor and holding the shield that is so indestructible not even a thousand soldiers could pierce their swords and spears through it! The armor may be a bit much for the occasion, but the shield should be just strong enough to break through the door and save Dreamfinder.

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel allows herself to get enough distance for a running start. She steadies herself to her position ready to barge through the door with everything she’s got. Now she charges! Faster and faster and faster Rachel ran with her shield in front of her and her arms tensed, bracing herself for whatever pain may come her way as soon as she gets inside. Her screams became her battle cry. At the first touch of her shield the door breaks down, shocking Dreamfinder and the King KaZing with her surprise attack. Rachel’s face has turned red with pressure and steam compounded with her anger. Her eyes have darted toward KaZing ready to tear him limb from limb. She growled with rage as she held onto her shield as tightly as she could. This girl means business!

“Hey Wooso King!” Rachel shouted, “Let Dreamfinder go and change us back to normal!”

“Ah, Rachel! I see you have come to join the party.” said the king who tried to keep himself calm about the situation, “We were just talking about this ‘geodesic sphere’ you three have been trying to get to. It fascinates me quite a lot. Any chance I might take part in sharing the glory that thing could contain?”

“Whatever chance you’re thinking it is, I can tell you that it’s a very fat one. You not going anywhere near that thing. We don’t even know if the geodesic sphere is considered safe in any kind of hand.”

“That’s a shame. Here you two are telling me something about a monument so powerful it could change the face of reality and yet you know nothing to prove its potential. That’s going a little over the edge of yourselves, is it not?”

“I’ll admit, it does sound hard to believe.” said Dreamfinder.

“Dreamfinder, are you okay?” Rachel asked.

“Other than turning into a Wooso while being strapped to a chair against my will and forced to tell my secrets, I’m doing great!”

“Seriously, what is your problem?” Rachel yelled at the king, “Why is this and changing us into Woosoes so important to you?”

“For centuries, my people have depended on legends to repeat its history in ruling and saving our kind from certain destruction and mass hysteria. Since when has there ever been a Wooso, Mochika, or Khalizi who ever wanted to take a stand and try to rule over our kind without their support? No one until I have come along. When I became the king, I made sure every piece of information of our past heroes, gods, and idols were locked away so everyone in our clans would have no one to turn to but me. With all this power, I control all three of our tribes and I get respect out of the fear I threaten them with. The people of Fillidore no longer have any use of believing in such fantasies while they are facing the reality of our civil politics. All was fine until you two and your purple creature had arrived. I’m not exactly sure how you three were recognized to be our gods, but because of that you took all of the respect that was mine. That is why I had created the formula to turn you into Woosoes…”

“So you could tell everyone that we, as gods, had abandoned them while you still stay on top and have everyone continue to do as you say!” Dreamfinder figured out.

“That’s your game then!” Rachel shouted.

“Precisely!” said the king, “I will admit this, though. Your culture of this music did give me some ideas on how I could better grip my control over the kingdom without leaving them to their suspicions about me. I must thank you for that.”

“And what about Flora?”

“What about her?”

“While you secretly hide away your truly loath-living self, you fake your kindness towards the Woosoes except for Flora. She is your daughter, your only child, the princess, and the rightful heir to the throne! Why is it you hide your schemes from the public, but not her?”

“Coaxoch is a worthless brat! She deserves nothing! Nothing from me at all!”

“Just because she’s a girl?” Rachel shouted.

“YES!” the king yelled as he grabbed onto Rachel’s shirt collar, scaring her, tossed away her shield and looked at her straight into her eyes with rage.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder gasped.

“There has not been one female Wooso, Mochika, or Khalizi who has ruled our lands because of their dainty personalities. Men are the more dominant in our kind and I prefer to keep it that way. They get these ideas of better perfecting our civilization; ideas that could better top what I have made for them. Out of all the women’s ideas, I believe Coaxoch’s are the most insanely impossible, pointless, and ludicrous! I will not be topped by a stupid child of that gender. And I will take down every female Wooso, Mochika, and Khalizi who defies me and my orders and every Wooso man who supports their ideas and abandons their loyalty of me!”

Rachel, hearing the king’s harsh words, then notices a bright spot of light dancing on the ceiling. Something about that little light made her feel confident for some reason.

“You can’t possibly feel this way about women!” Dreamfinder said in great distress of the heart.

“I MEAN IT! I MEAN IT ALL!” the king cried.

“Dude, for real? Are you sure?” Rachel said, making sure his words were precise.

“YES! YES, FOR REAL! EVERYTHING I AM SAYING IS FOR REAL! And if you say another word of this to any Wooso or the other tribes, your head is mine!”

Then Rachel smirked and said, “That’s just what I wanted to hear. FIGMENT! FLORA! NOW!”

Without warning, all of the torches in the secret room have lit. And with them, the entire Wooso population stood there with Flora and Figment upfront watching everything and listening to everything the two friends and the king have been saying. The faces of the Woosoes have become shocked with disbelief. They had no idea those intentions of the king have been for real for all of the time he had reigned over them. KaZing, on the other hand, stood there in shock himself. How did everyone find one of the secret entrances and get in here, he wondered. He let go of Rachel’s shirt, not paying attention to her releasing Dreamfinder from his chair. Every word that he said about killing the female kind of Wooso, Mochika, and Khalazi for expressing their ideas on how to make Fillidore a better place to live and killing the males who would support those ideas… BUSTED!

“Wh-wh-what is this?” the king stuttered.

“They are your loyal people who look up to you while you turn them away for your own selfish greed for power. As if they don’t exist.” said Rachel, who still smirked and then said to the Wooso people, Figment and Flora, “WOO! I think we got him guys! We got it all! You heard the whole thing, right? Good, good, good!”

“Rachel, what are you doing?” Dreamfinder whispered to her.

“Trust me on this, Dreamer. I know what I’m doing.” she turned back to the king and continued, “I figured that you could really use an audience for this little dramatic thriller show you’re holding up here. Something called… ‘The King and I: the story where the heroes find how the king’s mind really ticks to stay in power!’ We got the whole thing now, yakatty- yack! You really laid it all out quite beautifully!”

“B-b-but how?” the king stuttered more, “How did you all find the secret doors?”

“Leave it to the only family you have to tell me about it.” Rachel signaled Flora to come up to her side, giving the king a clue of who revealed his secret.

“Coaxoch! You traitor!”

“No father, it is you who is the traitor to me when you defied me, my existence and killed my mother for giving birth to me…a girl.”

The Woosoes gasped with horror! They were told in the past that the queen died from a terrible sickness, but just like KaZing, Flora knew the whole truth. But the bigger shock to the Woosoes is that the king had a child in hiding the whole time! They had no idea they had a princess in the current royal family!

“Bah! You’re just a child, Coaxoch!” the king barked, “How could you possibly convince these people to do what you say?”

“I believe the question is ‘who helped her get the attention?’ ” Figment chimed in.

“You?”

“At first, the Woosoes didn’t believe a word I said about the secret entrance.” said Flora, “They all thought I was being a crazy little girl who wanted to start an uprising. But that was until Master Figment came in and vouched for me since everyone would listen to their gods and follow their orders. We led them to the secret door at the middle section of town where the vines grew and no one had guarded that spot. I have always known the secret code from you every time you used it to bring me into this terrible place, so I used that same code to get everyone inside. And now everyone knows what you truly are: a greedy, self-centered, dictating Wooso who wants everything done his way just because he’s the king who gets what he wants with a snap of his fingers. And now look what you have done to our gods, turning them into one of us for your own selfish deeds!”

“Those are not gods, Coaxoch!” the king yelled, “They have no power over you and me and the Woosoes! Being turned into one of us is their punishment for lying about their immortal power to protect us when they can’t. They are frauds! Therefore, they will be Woosoes for as long as eternity!” the king then pulled out a vile with a potion inside. It’s the antidote to reverse the process of Wooso evolution! “So long as I’m standing, I won’t be needing this antidote anymore.”

“No! Don’t drop it!” Dreamfinder yelled.

“You’re right.” said Rachel, “We’re not gods. We do deserve a punishment. So go ahead, break it.” Rachel ordered.

“Rachel! Are you insane?!”

“We’ll be Woosoes forever if we don’t get the antidote!” Figment cried.

The king smirked. The one foolish thing Rachel had in mind is letting him destroy their only hope of turning back to normal. He raised his arm with the vile in hand and smashed it into the ground! The potion splashed with the breaking glass and it dissolved into the dirt where it would no longer be used to save the three travelers.

“NO!” Dreamfinder and Figment screamed.

The king maniacally laughed, “Stupid girl! For someone so persistent, you really have no brain. This is why no woman should rule this world. AND NOW YOU GET TO LIVE THE REST OF YOUR YEARS AND DIE A WOOSO!”

“Ooooh…yeah, about that.” Rachel slowly spoke, “We’re not actually turning into Woosoes at all.”

"What? What do you mean?"

"Watch."

Rachel, to everyone’s confusion, started pulling out her Wooso hair from her face revealing her skin. For the Woosoes, that would seem painful, but it doesn’t seem to effect Rachel for some reason. Here’s the thing: underneath that hair is a layer of some kind of sticky substance. That sticky substance had masked all of Rachel’s face with the hair. Rachel carefully peeled off the entire thing, leaving some people a little disgusted, until her whole face was made human again! It sure left a huge reaction on the king’s face. He did not see this coming!

“WHAT?! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” the king screamed with shocked.

“No it isn’t.” Rachel laughed, feeling victory running in her flesh, "It's all just funny, clever, and completely unpredictable! Mostly funny!"

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder shouted with shock as well, “You’re-you’re still human?!”

"As human as ever."

“How can this be?” Flora asked.

“What did you do, Rachel?” Figment asked, eager to know Rachel’s new secret.

“I knew all along from the beginning that the king was not to be trusted. The way he wanted to imprison us at our first impression and wage war against the Earth was way too obvious to tell. I also knew from when we released Flora from her prison, she spotted the king mixing something up for Dreamfinder, Figment, and me as we were passing by a room. She told us later that, and I quote, “He could use some kind of spell to turn you into one of us, to make you three Woosoes just like me and torture you all forever.’ That’s how I was able to put the two-and-two together. And then later last night at the feast I purposely drank from the chalice that had the same potion the king was making earlier that day. I knew the cost I would pay if I had drunk the potion. And yet, here I am as human as can be. And thank goodness for that.”

“But Rachel, you may still be human,” Dreamfinder interrupted, “but me and Figment are still Woosoes!”

“Ah, but here’s the thing: You did drink from the chalices, too, but the reason you two haven’t changed into anything as different as I haven’t been is because while you two and Flora were sleeping last night, I did a little work on preventing our evolution from happening. When the feast ended, I accidentally bumped into some Mochika women whom, as the king described to us when we arrived, are very well known for their choice of fashion and their use of herbs and spices. In other words about the herbs and spices, they would know an awful lot about the use of medicine. In secret, I told those Mochikas about the king’s plans and asked if there was anything I could do to prevent us three, you, Figment and me, from becoming one of their kind. They told me that they used to serve as the Mochika leader’s nurses, so they knew so many different vaccinations to cure those diseases from becoming fatal. The stuff that had been sticking the Wooso fur to my arms and face actually turns out to be used to grow fake fur on top while the minerals in the sticky paste would seep into the Woosoes’ skin until the real fur would grow out again, making the fake fur fall off later on. I asked those Mochikas if they could cure us and then use that paste to trick the king into thinking his plan was working. But I needed everyone to believe that we were actually turning into those Woosoes so the king wouldn’t suspect anything else happening or ask either one of you two, Dreamfinder and Figment, what my plans were to foil his schemes. AND THAT PUNK TOTALLY FELL FOR IT! WOO-HOO!”

“Remind me to never to take her lightly again.” said Figment.

“Agreed.” said Dreamfinder.

“But that’s not all I did last night. While the Mochikas were working on curing you and applying the paste on your faces and arms, I had a couple of the Wooso warriors bring in a couple documents and diaries of Fillidore’s history, family bloodlines, and legends. In there, I discovered the king’s family tree where both he and Flora are part of the same chain. When Flora first told me that she is the king’s daughter, I was a little skeptical. I thought this was her way of trying to trick me and escape the Wooso City for good, which either way I wouldn’t have blamed her for the condition she had been put in. Looking into that family history and how to tell who is part of the royal family really opened my eyes. The way to decipher who is part of the royal family is their birthmark.” Kneeling down to Flora’s height, Rachel continued to the crowd, “As all of you Woosoes know, every new generation in the royal family has a birthmark in the shape of a flower surrounded by a triangle to signify the connection of all the Wooso, Mochika and Khalizi tribes. Well Flora here has that same birthmark! Sorry about this, Flora.” 

Rachel reached to Flora’s right shoulder and ripped off a piece of her fur from it! Normally, it would hurt, but Flora did not feel any pain. That sort of confused her a bit. But when Flora looked down on her shoulder, it all started to make sense and everything Rachel has been saying is true. Not only did Rachel have the Mochikas use the paste on Dreamfinder and Figment, but on her as well. The royal family birthmark is there on her shoulder!

“People of Wooso City!” Rachel shouted, “This little Woosette is your real ruler! Your true future Queen of Fillidore!”

The crowds watched in awe. All this time, the king had the Woosoes treat that poor little Wooso girl with so much disrespect without even realizing for themselves that this girl could be their princess. Chants were raised in question of how this all is possible. The king watched this happen and became infuriated! His teeth clenched with rage and his hands tightened to fists. KaZing is not one to tolerate with this outrage.

“LIES! LIES! ALL OF THIS IS LIES!” the king shrieked, “THAT PEST DOES NOT DESERVE MY CROWN!”

“No, KaZing. It is you who does not deserve the crown or the right to govern these good people. Face it, Flora is the rightful heir to the throne and there is nothing you can do about it. Though you are right about one thing: Dreamfinder, Figment, and I, we’re not gods filled with great power and strength or anything of that sort, but that does not mean we don’t know what is best for the people we care about. The people we care about today, that’s Flora and the rest of the Woosoes, Mochikas, and Khalizis you have come to threaten and/or eventually abuse to weakness or death to keep your position intact! That’s the whole truth, isn’t it? WELL COME ON NOW! SAY IT!”

“……” he said nothing. The king is terrified beyond belief after hearing every truth that came out of Rachel’s mouth.

Even Dreamfinder and Figment were shocked to hear Rachel sound so strict and so thorough. At the same time, however, it kind of fascinated Dreamfinder a lot.

Deep in those scared eyes of the king, Rachel stared into them to the point where the Wooso king broke down to his knees. She won.

“What do you plan on doing to me then now that you all know the truth?” the king asked in a grunting rasped tone.

“…I think Flora should be the one to decide.” Dreamfinder suggested.

“Yeah! After all, she is the princess.” said Figment.

“Me? I don’t know.” said Flora, feeling uneasy about the situation.

“It’s okay, Flora.” Rachel said, “We got the king down and you’re practically second in command. This is your chance to get what you deserve, to be loved once more. Whatever you want to do to the king is up to you.”

Flora said nothing back. She walks up to the fallen Wooso king looking down at his pitiful face of defeat. There are no words she could think of to describe anymore of that. In a way, Flora wants to give the king the same treatment as he had given her for most of her life. At the same time, however, she hopes there is a better way; a better way that seems less dark. What could she do?

“Father…” Flora sighed, “All of my life, you had misunderstood me and many other Woosoes because you could not tell yourself to listen to us even once. And quite frankly, I don't know what to do with you after all of the terrible things you have done to me and our people. All the pain you had given me still haunts me to this day and I fear that is going to stay that way forever. More than anything, my mind tells me I should take out your life just as you did to my mother, the queen, and to all the innocent Woosoes you had imprisoned and executed. My heart, however, says otherwise. As much as I want to, I cannot bring myself to the position of cause immediate death. For now, Father, as Princess of the Woosoes and future Queen of Fillidore, I hereby send you into the dungeon until I give further command of your punishment. Guards, take him away.”

Hearing those words, the Wooso warriors came up to the king and grabbed him by the arms, fulfilling their true ruler’s command. The king’s crown had fallen off his head during the process. They begin dragging KaZing away from Flora, her friends, and the Wooso population as they cheered for his arrest.

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME, COAXOCH!” the king shouted along the way, “I OWN YOU! YOU DO AS I SAY! I’M YOUR FATHER!!!”

“…Not anymore.” Flora said, shedding a tear in her eye as she took one last look at her father leaving through the entrance door.

“You okay, Flora?” Figment asked.

“All of you…” Flora began, then turned to her friends and said, “Thank you. Thank you all for helping me!”

Flora made a group hug of herself, Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment knowing that her victory and dreams of claiming her rightful the throne has been complete. She then saw the crown and took it upon her hands. The crown glistened in gold as she gazed upon its magnificence. What had belonged to her father, her father’s father, and all of her ancestors now rests within her hands.

“It’s yours, if you want it.” said Rachel, “Take it.”

“Will…will all of you put it on for me?” Flora asked.

“We’d be honored!” Dreamfinder smiled with delight.

“All together now!” said Figment excitedly.

The Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment each took the crown in their own hands and placed it upon Flora’s head. Not much of a traditional coronation, but it definitely tops all the other ones from the past.

“All rise for her highness, Princess Flora of Wooso City, Queen of Fillidore!” the chief captain of the Wooso warriors ordered.

“Long live the Queen!” Rachel shouted as she raised her imagined shield in the air.

“LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!” the Wooso population and Wooso warriors cheered raising their weapons with dignity.

Everyone began bowing to Flora, their new queen of Fillidore. So did Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment, but as Flora turned to them, she felt something was wrong of them.

“Masters Dreamfinder and Figment and Mistress Rachel, my friends.” Flora said majestically as they looked up to her, “You bow to no one in this land of Fillidore so long as I stand as queen and your friend.”

The queen and the Wooso population then began bowing to them as the three travelers stood to their feet. Blushes of appreciation filled Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment’s cheeks. They are not gods, everyone realizes that now, but great heroes sent from above to save them from the dictating treachery that had plagued their world. And that’s what they did. The prophecy of the Woosoes had once again been fulfilled.


	9. Chapter 9

Down at the foot of the mountain where the Dram Machine is parked, the Wooso crowd gathered for their farewells to their visitors. The half sun is shining high at noon, brightening up for the new dawn of a better reigning kingdom filled with both peace and imagination. With Flora as the new queen of Fillidore, she is free from her father’s control and able to let her people believe whatever they want to believe. Ruling a kingdom is definitely going to take a lot of work. However, with all the support of her people, the staff in the royal house, and her three friends from Earth, she feels she has nothing to worry about anymore; at least for now.

Now that the Woosoes are free and Flora takes the throne, it’s time for Dreamfinder and his companions, who is no longer wearing any mineral paste or Wooso hair on their arms and faces, to continue forth on their adventure to find Spaceship Earth. It saddens all the Woosoes very much to see them leave but they knew they were going sooner or later. Especially since neither Rachel, Dreamfinder or Figment are immortals. Standing between her people and her foreign friends with the Dream Machine, Flora begins to say her heartfelt goodbyes.

“Rachel, Dreamfinder, and Figment.” Flora began, “You will come back again sometime, will you?”

“Of course!” said Figment, “We’ll even bring back some nifty stuff for you to see, if you like.”

“That would be wonderful!”

“I believe it is safe to say that with you ruling Fillidore now, the Woosoes will be a lot happier with their new free thinking.” said Dreamfinder, “And all that free thinking will come great improvements towards your civilization, I assure you.”

“And you are welcome to return anytime you want to see it.” said Flora happily.

“Flora,” Rachel came in, kneeling down at Flora’s height while Dreamfinder and Figment stood, “I have siblings back home who have supported me through harsh times against my parents. You and I, we come from two different families with the same personalities we had to live through all of our lives. Seeing you and me working together to get you where you are now, I consider you now as a little sister to me. And I will miss you terribly.”

“I’ll miss you, too, Rachel.” Flora said, nearly crying, “If it weren’t for you, your loving care for my well being and your strive to get me where I am today, I would never have gone this far in my young life. There are many more words in my mind I want to say about how truly grateful I am for what all you three have done for me, but I actually thought of another way.” Letting go of Rachel’s hands and calling on a couple Wooso warriors, she continued, “On behalf of the entire Wooso population expressing our gratitude for your heroism, I have proposed to have the term ‘imagination’ be put in our dictionaries and to have a statue of all of your likenesses be built at the center of our market place and in the royal hall so we may all remember your great deeds and pass the story on to future generations of our people.”

The warriors brought to them an image of what the statue would look like. Rachel, holding the shield she imagined up and used to bash with and rescue Dreamfinder, would be standing in front with Dreamfinder and Figment standing behind her. The statue would be made with copper, since gold and silver don’t seem to be found anywhere in Fillidore, and stand on a stone carved pedestal. And on that pedestal there will be a plaque saying:

 

In dedication to Figment, Peeheinie and Rachel,  
for whom we greatly appreciate for their bravery, intellect,   
integrity and artistry in saving our kingdom from lack of  
innovation and cultural loss.

 

“Wowie-wowie-wow-wow-wow!” Figment exclaimed, “That’s great!”

“Cool!” Rachel also exclaimed in awe.

“Absolutely- …wait. Did you spell my name to Peeheinie again?” Dreamfinder noticed.

Rachel and Figment had to chuckle at that name again. It has become too funny to let Dreamfinder live it down.

“That is your name, is it?” said Frank, one of the Wooso warriors who guarded the dungeon before.

“No, It’s Dreamfinder. Dream! Finder! One word!”

“Easy, Dreamer.” said Rachel, trying to withstand her laughter, “Deep breaths.”

“I told you!” said Denny the other Wooso warrior who also guarded the dungeon, “I said that it’s Dreamfinder, not Peeheinie!”

“No you didn’t!” said Frank, “You said that it’s Peeheinie! You’re the one who wrote it on the paper!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Oh yeah?” Denny yelled.

“Yeah!” Frank yelled back.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“Guards! Guards!” Flora interrupted, “We can fix that. Just scratch out ‘Peeheinie’ and put in ‘Dreamfinder.’ Simple as that.”

“Yes, your majesty.” both the warriors groaned.

“This is all such a great honor! Thank you very much!” said Dreamfinder.

“It is our pleasure.” said Flora, holding up her hand to Rachel, “High five.”

“High five.” Rachel smiled, receiving Flora’s high five, “Thank you so much. This really means a lot coming from all of you. Especially you, Flora.”

“Again, it is my pleasure.”

“Hey, let’s take a self portrait of us four!”

Everyone gathered around, Dreamfinder, Rachel, Figment and Flora together. Rachel takes out her Polaroid camera and aims the front of it at her and her friends. Click! She snaps a couple photos; one for Rachel and one for Flora to remember her, Dreamfinder and Figment by. Souvenirs to prove their friendship is intact as well as those different realms with different kinds of people are real. With pictures like these, it would put the belief of aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFO) by human suspicions to shame.

The two girls hugged one another. A person on Earth or Fillidore would hardly believe a sisterly friendship like this could form light years away from each other’s worlds. Apparently, both a human and a Woosette have beaten this kind of odd. Letting go, Rachel turned to the Dream Machine and hopped onboard with Figment, after giving hugs to Flora as well, following her. As Dreamfinder finished saying his goodbyes to the Woosoes, he turned to board the airship. But before he got on, he was stopped by a swift grab on the sleeve of his pants by Flora.

“Master Dreamfinder,” Flora began, “I need you to do me this huge favor.”

“Of course. Anything!” Dreamfinder agreed.

“When Rachel came to the prison to see me, she said that I’m worth something to live in the existing world, but not her. That worthlessness is not what I see in her. Please help her believe in that.”

“I will. I promise you.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey Peeheinie! Let’s get going!” Rachel teased aloud receiving a small pout in return.

After a short hug between the dreamer and the new queen, Dreamfinder took his seat in the pilot’s chair. With his imagination, he made the Dream Machine start afloat. It rose higher and higher off the ground leaving the Woosoes below shouting and waving their farewells. The three friends returned their farewells as well, waving their goodbyes. The only Wooso Rachel kept her eyes on was Flora. She kept getting smaller from up above to higher she, Dreamfinder and Figment flew. She lost sight of Flora and the Woosoes when Dreamfinder opened another portal and drove the Dream Machine inside.

Goodbye Fillidore and goodbye to Flora as she said these last few words.

 

You will always be a goddess to me, my sister. 

 

********************************************************************************************************

Now their surroundings are nothing more but blackness and blue stars all over again. They ride in between the different realms to their next destination. More blue twinkling stars passed by them as they went on. Behind them, Fillidore is now nothing but a little blue speck shrinking smaller and smaller and smaller, fading into the dark void of nothingness. Watching Fillidore fall behind made Rachel’s heart sink. Suppose she would ever see Flora and the other Woosoes again. Maybe someday, Dreamfinder and Figment will bring her back there for a visit. But will Flora still be around by the time she comes back? The time-space continuum, in the case of imagination, is awfully unpredictable. One day, the three of them leave the dimension, and then the next time they come back it could possibly be a month, a year, or fifty to maybe a hundred years later in the future! It’s possible for that kind of prediction to happen in any kind of world they’d come across. Even on Earth.

The only thing that helped distract Rachel from this worriment was the blue sparks passing by and watch the Dream Machine fly towards a bright light. It’s the same bright light she, Figment and Dreamfinder saw when they entered Fillidore, only this time this upcoming new world will be much different. All there now is the atmosphere in pure white; whiter than any shade of white that would be painted on a wall or a picture. A light like this would be bright enough to blind them, but for some reason it doesn’t. Perhaps it might be a special glass to prevent the light from hitting them on their goggles. Or maybe their eyes are able to cope with that light. Thankfully, that light would not last long.

Coming out of the light, finally, the Dream Machine enters the new world. Everywhere around them from top to bottom and all around the sky is blue littered with white fluffy clouds. Sailing through an ocean of sky, the clouds pass by them like waves. The sun is rising high warming up the three friend’s faces as it reaches to high noon. Down below, the surface of the new world is a lot more peculiar looking. For some reason the atmosphere seems to be swarming with floating rocks! Some of which have grass covering almost half the rocks itself.

“Golly! The gravity must be lighter here than it does on Earth.” said Figment.

“That’s an understatement.” said Dreamfinder, “What do you think, Rachel? Rachel?”

Rachel didn’t pay any attention to Dreamfinder or Figment. She is more focused on looking behind thinking if leaving Flora and Woosoes was the smartest idea. After all, Flora is young and just gained the throne. She might not know a thing or two about reality as much as she does now. Then again, neither does Rachel.

Being the one who noticed Rachel’s attention being directed somewhere else Dreamfinder spotted the photo of him, his friends and Flora in her hand. It’s sad to leave a friend behind, he thought to himself. He can understand what it means to feel this way.

“Don’t worry, Rachel.” Dreamfinder said, holding her hand to show his support for her, “I’m sure Flora will be fine. We can always return there whenever we want to and check up on them.”

“Sure.” said Rachel, who didn’t sound too convinced, “I’m going to go write in my log.”

“Oh, that’s right! I forgot to tell you something about your room. Figment, can you manage the controls for a moment? I’ll be right back.”

“Sure thing, Dreamfinder!” said Figment excitedly as he took Dreamfinder’s seat.

“Come with me, Rachel.”

********************************************************************************************************

So Dreamfinder leads Rachel back into the cabin. Inside, they enter through the hallway and then into Rachel’s bedroom. Just as Rachel had left it, the room is in brown and mahogany red. It’s totally empty inside but a closet, a window, and a warm bed. For Rachel, she figured Dreamfinder could have done better in setting up her room to better suit her comfort. Dreamfinder, however, thought otherwise.

“Other than what’s in here right now I didn’t bother managing what your room would look like considering we had only just met and I hardly know you so much.” said Dreamfinder, “So I figured you could do the honors of imagining what your room should look like. Whatever pops into your head for furniture and wallpaper colors, in case you don’t like these colors, you can make it appear and arrange it in any space you want. You’ve even got your own bathroom inside so we all wouldn’t have to stress ourselves to share just one. Your room, your rules.”

“Sweet!” Rachel said happily, “Thanks!”

“I’ll leave you to your decorating and your logging. If you have any questions or need any help, let me and Figment know and we’ll be happy to help. I’ll have Figment come over to check on you later and if we find another place to explore.”

“Thanks, Dreamer.”

Dreamfinder closed the door behind him as he left Rachel in her room. He feels confident that Rachel’s room will look good as well as hoping it will match her personality and her best interests. Meanwhile in Rachel’s case, she might do a little more than place furniture. Hilariously, she imagined her room to come to life in a split second!

“I’M DONE!” Rachel shouted, catching Dreamfinder just as he reached the cabin door.

“Done?!” Dreamfinder exclaimed in laughter, “Rachel, it’s only been five seconds!” He walks back to Rachel to see what her new room would look like. She’s probably joking around with him. “How can you possibly decorate your room within five- whoa…”

True to Rachel’s word, she finished decorating her new bedroom. She did it all in record time, too. The bed and the closet remained as they are, a new 5ft deck is built to fit a third of the room with a writing desk on top, a shelf of books stood on one side of Rachel’s bed while a small nightstand stood on the other, two pothole windows gave the room some light added with curtain hanging beside them for privacy, a green carpet rug lay below at the door, and a stack of books with empty pages sat on the desk. There still isn’t much stuff in that room, but overtime there should suppose Rachel stays there for a while longer. In Dreamfinder’s case, he hopes it’s forever.

Dreamfinder saw this room in awe finding it unbelievable to accept the fact of how Rachel was able to finish doing what she would do to that room with five seconds! Then again, he could have done it himself in no time. After all, he is the Dreamfinder and with that he can come up with any idea from his mind on the spot almost every single time. There’s a reason for saying ‘almost,’ more on that later. As for Rachel’s bedroom, this is something to be impressed by.

“Wow! Good job! And you said you have no imagination.” Dreamfinder smirked.

“I guess I have a little.” said Rachel, “But I doubt that I even have enough to help you with finding out exactly where Spaceship Earth is now. As far as I’m concerned, that thing could be anywhere in any realm and it could take forever to find it.”

“You’re stressing again, Rachel.”

“Just stating the obvious.”

“This ‘obvious’ notion you have in your head is what’s causing obstacles to appear and keep you behind on your goals. Start keeping an open mind and you’ll not only be keeping your mind clear, but you’ll feel much healthier that way both mentally and emotionally.”

“If you say so.” she sighed.

“I mean it, Rachel.” Dreamfinder warned her in a serious tone, “I mean every word of it. Believe me, I’ve been through all of that and worse in the past.”

“Sure…I’m gonna start logging in my books now.”

As if ignoring what Dreamfinder had just said, Rachel left him to sit at her new desk. She takes out a red leather book filled with empty pages waiting to be written on and opens to the first page. Grabbing hold of the feathered pen Rachel dips the writing tip into a small bottle of ink and begins writing. She starts her log out with a preface of her life where afterwards she will be writing about how she ended up going on this adventure.

Seeing Rachel react like this at him has made Dreamfinder feel a little annoyed. It was as if he was just talking to a wall. Having Rachel turning her back to his face is making him believe she is not even listening him. It looks like Rachel is going to have to face her battles of fear and doubt the hard way just as he did once or twice before. Hopefully, she won’t have to do it alone.

Dreamfinder walks up to the deck behind Rachel and watches her write her new log. The first few sentences look well written. Perhaps Rachel could make a better living off of writing books instead of picking up trash in an amusement park; that kind of job should not be worked on by any brilliant person unless if it deems it to be voluntary. 

The book starts off with Rachel’s life before she meets the Dreamfinder and Figment. Hopefully, the genre will begin with some happy memories of Rachel’s childhood. Dreamfinder kept his full-on focus on the feathery pen writing its words. He hardly paid any more attention to the conversation they just had as Dreamfinder felt his feet being glued to the book.

“Uhh…do you mind?” Rachel asked.

“Huh?” Dreamfinder snapped out of his gaze at Rachel’s voice. He must have been more absorbed to the book than he imagined.

“You’re kinda hovering over me and breathing down my neck.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m just curious as usual. I’ll leave you to your logging. Can’t wait to read it when you publish it.”

“If I ever get home to make that happen to begin with.”

“We will, I assure you. Just don’t spend all day cooped up in here. You’ll gain more material for your story by seeing what’s out there in the different realms.”

“Yes sir.”

Dreamfinder begins to leave Rachel to her newly decorated bedroom logging in her new book when something popped into his head. He turned around and said, “Oh by the way Rachel, I didn’t get a chance to tell you how thankful and impressed I am on how you managed to trick the [former] Wooso King and save us from his plot of exploit. You’ve certainly handled the situation quite well.”

“You’re welcome, Dreamer.” said Rachel, “And thank you.” 

Despite the praise from Dreamfinder, Rachel did not seem so amused for herself. He figured that the girl is glued to her new log, trying to keep every one of her new travels up to date. But why keep them away from him and Figment. They both witnessed what had happened in Fillidore. What’s to be ashamed about, if it could be called a shame for that matter? Dreamfinder didn’t know. Not yet anyway. Perhaps it’s best to leave her be for a while.

********************************************************************************************************

The Dreamfinder leaves Rachel and heads back to the pilot seat. There he finds Figment sitting in his chair working the controls to help the Dream Machine stay afloat. As Figment flew the Dream Machine his royal purple scales gleamed in the sunlight reflecting that light to the balloon on top of him. Being a part of the airship for as long as Dreamfinder has, the dragon seems to be pretty good at flying. After all, he’s got two tiny wings to fly with himself. He began humming a little tune to himself as they flew onward with Dreamfinder standing behind hovering over his imaginary friend. The funny part about watching Figment flying the Dream Machine is that Figment’s legs are way too short to reach the pedals below him. How can he possibly fly this thing with legs so short? 

“Imagination, imagination.” Figment hummed, “A dream, can be a dream come true. De-de-de-do. De-de-de-dum.”

“Having fun, Figment?” said Dreamfinder, watching Figment look above himself to see who is hovering over him.

“Wah!” the dragon screamed, “Oh Dreamfinder, you scared me!”

“Sorry. I couldn’t resist.” Dreamfinder chuckled, “How’s it looking from here?”

“Smooth sailing from up here. A little rocky in some areas, but still pretty smooth.”

“That’s good. I truly am curious as to what we’ll find in this world.”

“Hopefully some people who won’t turn us into furry beings.”

“Hopefully indeed! That would be most gracious.”

“Perhaps the locals, if any, might be a lot nicer.”

“The Woosoes were nice. It was just KaZing that was just the opposite of friendly.”

“Un-friendly!”

“Y-y-y-yeah. Right.” Dreamfinder stretched, “So…I just remembered. You’re a little dragon, right?”

“Yeah.” Figment replied.

“With short legs?”

“Righto!”

“Then how are you even pressing down on the pedals if you’re way up here on my seat?”

“Hmm…good point. *Gasp* I know!” Figment began thinking of something with his imagination. He imagined his legs growing longer and grow longer they did. His legs grew long enough to place his feet against the pedals, which led to his satisfaction just swell! “See? Problem solved!”

“Well that’s one major accident averted, so I guess we can call this a good day so far.” Dreamfinder laughed.

“Hey! What’s that over there?” Figment pointed ahead.

“What’s what now?”

“Over there!”

“Goodness! A whole new area with new curiosities to seek out just as I hoped for!”

“Wowie-wow, Dreamfinder! We’ve got to down there!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice! Head down to that small mountain and-”

“Which one?”

“The one down at the foot of that giant twisted mountain where those tiny little houses are. I’m going to get Rachel out here. She’ll definitely want to see this!”

“Try not to break her heart while you’re at it!” Figment teased.

“Now why would I-…oh hush up!” Dreamfinder shouted.

********************************************************************************************************

With Rachel all alone in her new bedroom she has finally been given the freedom to write down what she has seen in her new adventures. Starting with her introduction and prologue, she began writing about what had happened before she had met the Dreamfinder and Figment the dragon. Her own life’s story before now has plenty of material for her to use, but not all at the same time. She figures she should scatter her experiences and sprinkle them with some future adventures to come relating to those matters. Of course by now the only other world she had been to aside from Earth is Fillidore. Drafting the text on what she wants to relate to is going to take a long while with some serious editing skills.

She then starts writing about the Woosoes. Writing about what she knew about them and Fillidore is filling Rachel with enough momentum to keep on going nonstop. Her excitement is crawling into every nerve in her body to the point of having goosebumps rise upon her flesh. The pictures she had taken of Fillidore and the Woosoes became very essential to her logbook; in fact, it’s probably become the very most essential out of everything else in her book! Rachel adds the picture of her, Flora, Dreamfinder and Figment into an empty page beside the text with rubber cement. It seemed only too soon to leave Fillidore after seeing so much of it in one day. She wishes there is more to see. It’s already considered a done deal as far as she is concerned with Dreamfinder and Figment, but putting them aside for just a brief moment, what more could there possibly be?

Rachel…

A loud swift hush filled the room as Rachel writes down the final paragraph to her logbook. She can hear her name being called, but the source it unknown. It definitely wasn’t Dreamfinder or Figment’s voices and she didn’t make that loud hushing herself. Where did it come from?

“Hello?” Rachel spoke, hoping to get an answer out of the hushed voice.

So far, there is nothing. With the final sentence written for now, the girl shuts her book closed and returns her quill pen to the ink jar. She stands up from her chair, stretching her arms while avoiding muscle pain.

Child…

There it is again! The voice filled Rachel’s ears, startling her with chills running up and down her body. This is a voice she had never heard before. Or has she? If she has, then she’s definitely forgotten.

“Who’s there?” Rachel spoke again.

Again nothing. This is beginning to get real weird, weird enough even for her. Someone else must be in the Dream Machine and Rachel can’t figure out who it is? It couldn’t be any one of the Woosoes. She, Dreamfinder and Figment made sure no one was stowing away onto the Dream Machine before they left Fillidore. This voice, for a sound so hush-hush, sounded like it came from a woman’s. That can’t be. Rachel is the only woman in the Dream Machine. Who else could possibly be here?

Rachel…

“Show yourself!” Rachel shouted.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder shouted as he barged into the bedroom door unexpectedly.

“AH!”

“AH!”

“Oh, Dreamfinder.” Rachel calmed down, “It’s only you.”

“Sorry, Rachel. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“When haven’t you? What’s up?”

“Come outside! We’ve found our new destination to explore.”

As Dreamfinder went ahead with Rachel following him, the hushed voice sounded again.

Come, child…

“Wha-?” Rachel awed in alarm.

Come to me, Rachel…Come to me…

“Okay, this is getting both weird and annoying.” Rachel remarked, “Dreamfinder!”

Rachel raced up to Dreamfinder, as he is about to exit the cabin door. He is filling up with excitement inside to where it nearly became impossible for him to pay any attention to his other surroundings. A swift grab on his arm by Rachel’s hand was able to snap him out of it.

“Dreamer!” Rachel exclaimed.

“What?” said Dreamfinder.

“Dreamer, when you came into my room did you hear a voice echoing in there?”

“No? I didn’t hear anything.”

“Nothing at all?”

“No. Did you?”

“I thought I did.”

“We’ll look into it later. Right now, this new world awaits us!”

Just as Rachel was about to look behind her in regards to the faintly sounded voice, Dreamfinder grabs the girl’s hand and pulls her away with him. The excitement in him cannot be contained in situations like this. It’s one thing Rachel is going to have to get used to along the way to finding Spaceship Earth. 

Meanwhile, as Rachel leaves with Dreamfinder to join with Figment at the front, the cabin halls remained silent. Nothing else, not even the tiny hush of a certain voice filled the room anymore. Not for a while anyway. If Dreamfinder could not hear what Rachel had just heard, then that means that something unnatural, something supernatural if it should necessarily be called that, is intending to come straight at her. But what for?

Perhaps it is just her imagination. That is what Rachel hopes for.


	10. Chapter 10

The first sight of this new world has become very welcoming for the three friends, yet also kind of twisted in a sense. What lies before them stands a tall mountain unlike any they have ever seen before. The mountain looks as if it were the outside of an apple were peeled and left alone in a large triangular shape completely hollow inside. The only thing colored in red is the very tip-top of the mountain. Who the heck knows why that is? None of the other mountain ranges around it are that red. Some of them have snow covering the mountaintops and floating rocks.

What feels like noon to the team of three must be a few hours ahead for whomever lives in this realm. The sky is now turning orange depicting the time to be nearing sunset. And they have only been there for almost an hour. Time really flies fast here.

Around the twisted mountain are also large craters with water rushing underneath them; it must be up to fifty feet at maximum. They are hiding beneath every crater in the land near every home-owned area in the land. The water matches the color of the sky at this time. A great source of that water is hidden under that twisted mountain and with it something else.

At the base of the twisted mountain lies a city. Not much like the Wooso City back in Fillidore, but an actual urban city with skyscrapers, towers, monuments and everything! The silvery steel of those building structures shines brightly from the sun’s reflection. A gondola sits right above the city with cables tracing the outer wall straight up near the top of the mountain. The largest thing Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment can see in the city is a golden statue on top of a large white pillar holding something in its hand. Whatever significance caused the people who live in the city must have had some real good reason to build it and to build it so high.

Again, Rachel brings out her camera and snaps an aerial photo of the twisted mountain and the city below. A mountain like this is nothing like the mountains back in California or anywhere else in the world for that matter. If there was art at home made to look a lot like this particular mountain, then that might be the only thing close enough to match the mountain here.

“That is one twisted piece of rock!” said Rachel, “How is it so hollow?”

“Mother Nature?” Figment replied.

“Impossible! There’s no way she could make something like this, not that I doubt her power in general.”

“Perhaps on Earth, she wouldn’t.” said Dreamfinder, “But in any realm it could either be made up by other beings residing in them or it could be us imagining these sort of things coming to life. In other words: mind into matter.”

“You’ve been keeping that philosophy for a long time, haven’t you.” Rachel sassed.

“Never underestimate the power of the human mind, Rachel. Believe me, I’ve tired.”

“When?”

“Right when my first adventure began with Figment.”

“When was that? Over a century ago?” she snickered.

“Yes!” Dreamfinder exclaimed excitedly, “How’d you know?”

Dumbfounded she replied, “Uhhmmm…lucky guess.”

“Hey you guys, check out that city down there!” Figment interrupted, pointing at the city.

“At least that’s something to remind me of home.” said Rachel.

“So shiny!”

“Those building must all be made out of solid steel.” Dreamfinder inputs, “Let’s check it out!”

“OH! OH! OH! OH! OH! OH! OH!” Figment raised his voice, “Let’s go down there the fun way!”

“No Figment! Not again!”

“What’s the fun way?” Rachel asks.

“It’s super fun!” Figment exclaimed, “You gotta try it! Can we do it? Please, please, please, please, please!”

“No Figment!” Dreamfinder said again, “Remember the last time we did it? I almost broke my neck from- no, I almost DIED landing down to the surface like that!”

“We can always imagine something to break the fall.”

“Fall? Break what fall?” Rachel asked, “Are you saying we jump down to the ground from the Dream Machine?!”

“YEAH!” Figment shouted.

“You’re even nuttier than Dreamfinder is…..I LOVE IT! LET’S DO IT! I’ve always wanted to jump down from the sky!”

“No! No! No! NO!” Dreamfinder shouted in between, “I am not going to risk either of your necks for your amusements.”

“Aw come on, Dreamfinder!” Figment groaned, “It’ll be fun!”

“That’s what you said last time when we jumped down five hundred feet in the air and landed in the Mexican border between there and California on the way to the D23 expo!”

“OLÈ!”

“And when we fell down from the first portal we’ve crossed over, too, tumbling down a hill to the ground and nearly breaking every bone in our bodies!”

“That one wasn’t my fault! It was your chairman from the academy in London who pushed you in by accident. Remember?”

“Still! The point is that neither of you are jumping down from the Dream Machine. We are going to safely land this ship down to the ground like how a real pilot controls the landing and that’s that!”

“Joy killer.” Rachel mumbled.

“I DO NOT KILL JOY, RACHEL!” Dreamfinder shrieked, “I MAKE JOY HAPPEN WITH IMAGINATION! What you and Figment are intending on doing is making joy happen for yourselves with excruciating pain! I will NOT stand for it! Especially for you, Rachel.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Don’t push it, girl or I’ll turn this airship around and send you home to St. Peter’s Town. That’s where you from, right?”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir.” Rachel moaned.

“Good girl.”

That certainly shut her up. The last thing Rachel wanted was to go home to her parents in California. They’d likely yell at her for getting fired by Disney and not coming home on time. Then again, when have they not yelled at her in general? Plus, going with Figment and Dreamfinder on adventures like this hardly comes anytime in a person’s lifetime. Especially since those two are always searching for different worlds every so often that hardly anyone ever sees them on Earth. That’s how Dreamfinder and Figment’s rare appearances at social events get so wild as well as their stories of different worlds. Sadly, Rachel never got to hear much of them because of her fear of her parents pressuring her with their loud volume. Going home to relive those moments is something she does not want to do.

“But Dreamfinder-” Figment tried to go on, but got cut off.

“No buts, Figment!” Dreamfinder yelled, “We are landing this thing safely and soundly and I don’t want to hear anymore of it.”

“Aww…”

“So what were you doing in the Mexican border anyway?” Rachel asked.

“You don’t want to know.” Dreamfinder advised while rubbing his eyes underneath his goggles with his two fingers, “It doesn’t exactly have a happy ending. For me at least.”

“What? Does it have anything to do with a likeness of you as a piñata getting decapitated by Figment whacking it with a stick and having candy fall from your head?”

“…Yes.” he quietly chirped, blushing, but making it loud enough for Rachel to hear.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“That’s alright. In a sense it was kind of funny.”

“And delicious!” Figment added.

“Figment, you’re making me feel worse about it.” Dreamfinder said.

“Lighten up, Dreamfinder! At least your head didn’t fall like what we could be doing now.”

“ALRIGHT FINE!” Dreamfinder screamed, as he stood straight up from his pilot’s chair setting the controls to autopilot, “YOU WANT TO JUMP DOWN TO YOUR DOOM, THEN BY ALL MEANS GO ON AHEAD! I DON’T CARE! Not you, Rachel! You’re staying!”

“But Dreamfinder, I didn’t mean-”

“No, no. Go right ahead. I don’t mind anymore. You’ve got wings after all, so you should be able to fly yourself to safety.”

“All by myself? But that’s not as fun!”

“Then don’t do it then.”

“Why don’t you drop down with Figment?” Rachel asked Dreamfinder.

“W-w-what- what do you- …you were not just listening to me earlier?” Dreamfinder stuttered, “we almost died or at the very least broken every bone we have going down like that. I don’t even know how we survived that time. Plus, someone needs to park the Dream Machine if two of us plan to go down there this way, which we’re not.”

“Okay then, you can land the Dream Machine while Figment and I drop down.”

“…Am I talking to people or a couple of deaf brick walls? I forbid you to go down with Figment, Rachel. You’ll die young and quicker if you do so.”

“YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!” Rachel screamed.

“RACHEL!” Dreamfinder yelled gripping Rachel by the shoulders.

“GET OFF OF ME!” Rachel pushes Dreamfinder away from her.

But when she did, Dreamfinder accidentally flips backwards over the railing and starts falling. Shrieks of shock filled Figment and Rachel’s vocal chords echoing in their necks and stomachs. Dreamfinder screams as he plummets down the atmosphere without a parachute to aid him and break his fall. There is already too much fear rushing through his mind to think up of something soft to land on once he reaches the ground. 

“DREAMFINDER!” Rachel and Figment shriek.

In a panic and without thinking Rachel jumps over the rail and starts falling through the sky to save Dreamfinder. Figment follows her leaving the Dream Machine unoccupied to his creator’s rescue hoping deep in his heart they will get to Dreamfinder before it’s too late. Rachel falls, diving faster and faster, closer and closer to Dreamfinder. Dreamfinder’s hat is already off of his head by halfway through the fall, falling all by itself to the surface. With his back against the upcoming ground, Dreamfinder’s watches Rachel and Figment coming down to save him. Why did they just do that? Now all of them are about to get hurt! But Rachel and Figment keep on diving down to him. It seems they care more for Dreamfinder’s health than they do for their own.

“Dreamfinder! Hold on!” Figment shouted, “We’re coming to get you!”

Reaching out her arms, Rachel tries to grab the Dreamfinder’s arms. Finally she succeeds but doesn’t know what to do next. She, too, has her mind full of fear of falling down and landing in a huge splat. She looks into Dreamfinder’s blue eyes and sees his fear flaring in his irises nearly crying. If that does not make Rachel feel worse about what’s happening now, who knows what will then? She closes her eyes tightly trying to think of a way to save themselves. Flying is just about the only way to avoid the danger. She thinks harder and harder to imagine herself flying again. The last time she did it at the D23 Expo was a huge flop. She has to make this work right now. Trying to get a clear vision in her mind Rachel imagines herself flying again, but it’s not working. Dreamfinder notices what Rachel is trying to do. He sees that Rachel is on the right track of using her imagination to save them, but he also knows that there is more to using it than just thinking about it in her head.

“RACHEL! RACHEL!” Dreamfinder shouts. Rachel opens her eyes to Dreamfinder’s shouting that interrupted her concentration. She hears him say, “Believe…”

“What?” Rachel said.

“You have to believe in your imagination, Rachel! Believe in yourself and you can do just about anything!”

Trying her best to heed Dreamfinder’s advice, Rachel closes her eyes again. Fear has flooded her mind again. There isn’t much time left for them to be saved. Closer and closer they are falling to their doom. Rachel tries to imagine herself flying again, only this time she adds just a smidge of self confidence. If this works, she and Dreamfinder would be flying safely down to the soft grassy ground that awaits them. But if it doesn’t, well…the ground would be greeting them a lot differently.

Suddenly, they stopped falling. Nothing hurt them. In fact, they didn’t even touch the ground. Figment stops diving just in time to see this happen. In midair, Rachel and Dreamfinder are gently floating! Rachel is flying again! Her imagination has saved them!

“You did it!” Dreamfinder happily announced, “You’re flying again, Rachel!”

“Yippee!” Figment cheered, “You’re safe!”

“What?” said Rachel in complete wonder, “Y-Yeah, I-I guess I did.”

“You saved me.” Dreamfinder added in a soft tone and now fondling Rachel’s cheek in gratitude. Of course Rachel blushed, but at the same time she looked a little gloomy. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you at least happy we’re alive still?”

“Yeah, I am.” Rachel smiled a little, “Couldn’t be any happier.”

“By the way, who’s controlling the Dream Machine?”

“What?” Figment and Rachel said at the same time with their eyes widened with disbelief.

Rachel and Figment turns their heads behind them and sees that the Dream Machine is also plummeting down toward them! No one is driving the airship! Therefore the Dream Machine, without the power of imagination, is falling towards the surface ground.

“Oh snap!” Rachel shouted.

“Yikes!” Figment yells.

“Quick! Fly me up to the pilot’s seat!” Dreamfinder orders.

“But didn’t you just set that thing to autopilot?” Rachel yelled.

“I did! But that’s not enough! Without the power of imagination, the Dream Machine won’t fly as well as it should. In mere moments the airship will plummet down by itself and crush anything inside and out and anything around it.”

“And I just finished decorating my bedroom today.”

“Hey, less negativity! More flying!” Figment reminded.

With their stomachs tightened, Rachel and Figment eagerly flies Dreamfinder back up towards the Dream Machine. Without a pilot to steer it, the Dream Machine cannot operate well. That means the Dream Machine will be dropping down and destroying anything it will hit. Time is of the essence! The Dreamfinder has to take control of the airship again fast! The three friends race back up to the sky trying to get close enough to the Dream Machine in time before it hits the ground. Like two mountain rams the Dream Machine and its riders race at each other ready to collide. It is like running against a wall the closer the Dream Machine is falling toward Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel.

Finally, they make it to the Dream Machine. They each grabbed onto the cable chord that’s attached the machine to the balloon and are being pulled down with it faster than gravity. To Rachel, it’s like riding the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s California Adventure only with rocky obstacles in the way and without ever rising back up for more rounds. It’s all downhill for everyone for where they are going unless Dreamfinder finds out what’s wrong with the machine itself. Figment tightly holds onto Dreamfinder waving like a flag as Dreamfinder returns to his seat where the controls are searching for the problem and with it, hopefully, a solution.

“The Dream Machine is still on autopilot,” Dreamfinder informed, “but I don’t think it has enough power to keep it afloat! We’ll have to conceptualize the Dream Machine to aviate itself if we don’t want to be relinquished!”

“In English please!” Rachel yelled.

“The Dream Machine needs dream power in order for it to work! We need to use our imaginations to fly again if we want to live!”

“No problemo!” Figment assured, “That shouldn’t be so hard!”

“Easy for you to say!” Rachel hollered, “You’ve got wings! You can fly yourself to a safe place if you wanted to.”

“All together now!” Dreamfinder shouted, “Start thinking and believing!”

That is really all they can do unless they want to keep ranting to their deaths. The three friends start imagining the Dream Machine to start flying again. Their faces are clenched tight as they think harder and harder and harder, gripping onto the rails as the Dream Machine continues to fall and bringing its riders to their doom. Believing the Dream Machine will fly again is most essential to bringing imagination to life. Even if Rachel alone is unable to believe the Dream Machine will be saved, Figment and Dreamfinder’s imaginations are enough to power the airship to a satisfied stability. Still, Rachel is trying her hardest to join her mind with her new friends’.

The gears in the Dream Machine began operating fast, turning and turning and turning quickly providing enough dream power for the ship to float. The purple steam rose and shot out of leaking pipes and pressure dials indicating that the Dream Machine is given too much power and is being overwhelmed by the pilot’s thoughts. Finally, the Dream Machine started taking position. With the balloon still inflated the Dream Machine begins flying again. Seconds away from hitting the ground, the fore of the Dream Machine swoops upward into a big ‘L’ before crashing. Now the airship is gliding right over the grassy plain making the friends feel relieved for not plummeting onto the ground. The only worry now is landing this thing without breaking anything else around them, such as the nearby houses, the hilltops and the craters. At least most of the rocks are floating high above them.

“Whew!” Rachel sighed with some relief in her, “Barely made it!”

“Indeed!” said Dreamfinder, “The only complication now is where to land this thing.”

“How about over there!” Figment suggested, “By that hill closest to the city.”

“That’s too close for me to park at this speed!”

“Can’t you slow it down?” Rachel asked, regaining her panic.

“I’ll try, but it’s going to be close.” Dreamfinder replied, “Hang on!”

Dreamfinder handles the stick shifts and pushes them forward. The wheels underneath the Dream Machine inch their way carefully to touch the grass. Hopefully, the results won’t result to extreme peril. When the wheels touched the surface, the grass has been cut and spewed behind them like a lawnmower on a hot summer day. This has increased the Dream Machine’s speed almost twice as much as it did while falling. Dreamfinder slams onto the brakes very hard. Screams are yelled by all three persons onboard the ship as they approached the nearest hilltop standing between a small group of houses and the large city underneath the twisted mountain. Rachel slams her foot on top of Dreamfinder’s right foot along with Figment’s foot slamming onto Dreamfinder’s left foot at the same time. Will it be slow enough not to slam onto the hilltop and crush Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment with it? Nearly breaking the brakes, and nearly ruining Dreamfinder’s shoes, the Dream Machine pulls up to the hilltop with its speed decreasing. Slower and slower they went until the very tip of the front rail tapped onto the hilltop indicating that the Dream Machine has finally come to a complete stop.

It’s all over at last. No more falling, no more crashing, and no more screaming. Dreamfinder sat in his chair quietly letting go of the stick shifts with Figment and Rachel standing right behind him. They all panted at each other thanking fate in their minds for not putting an end to them. For about a minute there was silence. And then Rachel began laughing softly. So much relief fell upon the poor girl for not dying she felt the need to laugh. Then Dreamfinder and Figment joined in on the chuckling. Ever so thankful for the fact that they still get to live. 

In the midst of that laughter, Rachel falls off the Dream Machine as if fainting. A loud thud hits the grassy ground with Rachel’s face and her body facing down breaking the glass on her goggles. Then she started crying hiding away her tears as they drop onto the strands of grass beneath her.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder called out, ending his spell of laughter.

He jumps down from the Dream Machine with Figment following him and rushes to Rachel’s aid. His feet finally touches the ground after being pushed over a rail, falling down through the atmosphere, and receiving his share of perilous terror. Arriving at Rachel’s side, the two of them sees her crying her tears, cringing in the fear that had built up inside during the fall, and her puppy-dog whimpering sounding in their ears. Dreamfinder’s hand is placed onto Rachel’s shoulder and then to her head for her comfort while Figment takes hold of Rachel’s hand and pats it. Each time they did Rachel keeps clenching her body tighter with fear. She has experienced too much within the past five to ten minutes of unimaginable horror.

“Are you alright, Rachel?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I’m…I’m alright, I-” Rachel whined, “I-I-I need a moment to rejuvenate a bit.”

“Take your time. Figment, watch over Rachel for a moment while I check for damages on the Dream Machine.” 

“Okay.” Figment agreed.

Dreamfinder leaves Rachel into Figment’s hands and heads back for the Dream Machine. As he did, he recollects his hat that had been sitting by while everything else was happening waiting to be taken back again and placed onto Dreamfinder’s head. The minutes have gone by as he searches for any casualties upon the gears, pistons, and pipes as well as the damages in the cabin rooms. Meanwhile Figment is keeping his eyes on Rachel figuring out ways to help her feel better from this traumatic moment. Nothing seems to work for Rachel continues to whimper. She can hardly move her body, her arms and legs at the very least. They trembled and twitched as every thought in her mind rushed with the recent memories of almost dying. Why did I think I could fall from the sky like that, she thought to herself. She thought of herself as a foolish woman for jumping off the Dream Machine. At the same time, she feels so foolish for confronting Dreamfinder and pushing him off the Dream Machine in the first place out of anger and selfishness. What she had done was wrong. She realizes that now. The question is will Dreamfinder ever forgive her for what she had done to him.

“Okay. Thankfully, the pipes, the gears and everything else operating the Dream Machine haven’t taken any severe damage.” Dreamfinder announced, “It’s going to take some tweaking and some parts in need of replacing to restore this old lug to its former glory. The cabin, however, needs a little work in fixing and rearranging. But we can worry about that later. How is Rachel doing, Figment?”

“Not good, Dreamfinder.” Figment replied, “She’s still cringing and crying a little. I think I can actually see a tiny puddle of tears in the grass.”

“Rachel? How are you doing, Rachel?”

But Rachel only groaned. Considering how drastic the fall was without having any safety precautions, one could hardly blame her for feeling this way.

“This is bad.” said Dreamfinder, “The cabin is too messed up to sleep in so we’re going to need to find some help as far as shelter and fixing up the Dream Machine. But where can we find that kind of help around here?”

“I saw a couple of houses nearby during the fall. Maybe we can find help from someone there.” Figment replied, “But can Rachel get up and walk?”

“Rachel? We’re going to take a walk.” Dreamfinder said calmly, “Can you move?”

“I…I c-can’t feel my legs…or my spine...or anything.” said Rachel in a weakened tone.

“Then I guess I’ll have to carry you over to wherever we can get to. Figment, help her up onto my back.”

“Righto!”

Dreamfinder takes off his suit jacket and wraps it over Rachel. It should at least keep her warm from the cold night. He then grabs Rachel by the arms while having Figment lift her to onto his back. With Rachel safely secure, the Dreamfinder stands up holding onto to Rachel on his back with his hands under her legs for support. Figment will fly right behind them in case Rachel falls off. The Dreamfinder can feel the coldness of Rachel’s body through his shirt and dress vest. That’s definitely not a good sign. Perhaps the fall has scared Rachel to near death. That’s an understatement Dreamfinder wishes doesn’t come true.

“From now on, Figment,” Dreamfinder started, “we only land the Dream Machine the ‘fun way’ when it really counts. Like when we have to abandon ship from treacherous peril.”

“Yes, Dreamfinder.” Figment groaned in guilt.

The three friends have to leave the Dream Machine behind while they go find some assistance. Dreamfinder can hear Rachel moaning a little in his ear along the way. It breaks his heart terribly to hear and see her this way. In a sense, this is what she gets for putting him and Figment in a situation like that. But he chooses not to think that way. What good will it do for him here now? He did just bring her along on this adventure to find Spaceship Earth, or geodesic sphere as he calls it. All he could do now is keep walking and hum a little tune for her. Hopefully, the tune will brighten Rachel’s spirits just a little bit.

Figment watches Rachel closely telling Dreamfinder to lift her up a little when needed. He feels this is all his fault. He only wanted to have a good time with his friends. Falling down from the sky with his friends was supposed to be like jumping into a swimming pool of clouds. The poor little purple dragon had forgotten that even though they could imagine themselves flying whenever they wanted to, neither one of them [Rachel and Dreamfinder] have any wings to support them. Perhaps the dispute between the two of them was the only thing that probably wasn’t much of Figment’s fault, though. But he did bring up the idea of falling from the Dream Machine in the first place. This is something Figment is going to remember for a long time.

The sun is nearly down as the night creeps over the sky bringing with it the colors pink and purple with white glistening stars. The wind is starting to pick up in the cool air. The floating rocks fly over the world leaving their original places behind to a new location. The lights in the city nearby are bright enough to be used as one giant lighthouse. The atmosphere outside the city, however, is getting too dark to see ahead of their surroundings. Figment, Rachel and Dreamfinder need to find shelter fast before they get stranded in the dark and will have to sleep outside for the night.

Up ahead of Dreamfinder and Figment they see four houses. Three of which are out from the inside while the one house have its light on. The first lit house Figment and Dreamfinder carry Rachel to was the nearest to them. Dreamfinder has Figment knocking on the door and they wait for someone to come answer them. They can hear footsteps coming toward the door and a jiggle on the doorknob.

The owner of the household answers the door and finds Figment flying and Dreamfinder holding Rachel behind him. To Dreamfinder and Figment, the man is about as average as anyone else, but to the man the Dreamfinder and Figment are among the most peculiar kind of people he had ever seen.

“Uhh…may I help you?” the homeowner said.

“Please, good sir.” Dreamfinder began, “You wouldn’t happen to have a room we can stay in for the night, would you? You see, my flying friend, this girl and I are traveling aviators and we have had a bit of an accident with our transportation as far as the landing is concerned. When we landed, Rachel here fainted from all of the trauma that had happened and our cabin area is too busted up to sleep in. It would be greatly appreciative if you will let us sleep here for the night. At least until Rachel is capable to walk again.”

“Oh, of course! Come inside. It’s not safe out there at this time of night. There are creatures out there that prowl through the night, but they won’t bother us so long as we stay inside and keep the lights dim.”

“What kind of creatures are they?” Figment asked.

“Oh pray you’ll never find out.” the man replied gravely. He then checks Rachel’s temperature with the back of his hand and says, “Oh dear…yep, she’s out pretty cold. She needs some warmth and fast! I’ll have a heating pad ready in a moment.”

“I should remind you, though. We don’t have any money to pay for your generosity, but we’re willing to-”

“Money? Since when does anyone have any money in this place anymore?” the homeowner asked, returning with the heating pad and placing it on Rachel’s shoulder, “With the government collecting every cent in the city and our homes, hardly anyone in this world are able to buy enough food to feed themselves. Even the middle classes are getting screwed over to them. You’d have to be lucky and smart to find a place in the highest degree if you were to earn enough money to buy at least one meal a day.”

“That’s unfortunate. How long has it been this way?”

“Ten years. Ever since the current governor took place in office, Iyra City and everywhere else in Iyrilia have been running in ruin with the financial economy. The people have tried to impeach him for his injustice but the government rules always keeps blocking the way from succeeding, backfiring and counter suing anyone who attempted to get in his way for everything they have including their homes.”

“That’s terrible!” said Figment, “What does impeach mean?”

“It means to accuse, criticize or reprimand someone, Figment.” Dreamfinder replied.

“Our city was once a grand city filled with diversified cultures, races and advanced innovation until the last governor we had in office had been assassinated. Thereby putting our greatest resources to shameful use. No one knows still who was responsible for the last governor’s death. I would love to have known so I could give that guy or gal a piece of my mind!”

“We are so sorry this has happened. I wish there is something we can do about it.”

“Bah, think nothing of it. You three are lucky to be only passing through. We all want to leave, too, but we wouldn’t know where to go. Our place remains here in times so troubling or not. Anyway, the guest room is in the back of the house. You can put your girl friend in there, but there is only one bed. I have a sleeping bag one of you can use, though.”

“That’s very kind of you. Thank you. Figment, you wouldn’t mind taking the sleeping bag, would you?”

“Not at all.” said Figment, “It’ll be like a sleepover with all of us together.”

The homeowner escorts his guests into the guest room where only one bed stood at the corner beside the one window and a pitcher of water with a bowl and towel stood on a nightstand stood next to the bed’s left side. There are only two chairs nicely fabricated and a mirror. A small room it is, but quite cozy and charming in appearance.

“It’s not much,” said the homeowner, “but compared to how everyone else is sleeping in the city today, it’s become like a four-star hotel.”

“Thank you, Mr….uh…” Dreamfinder paused.

“Howard. Howard Fitz.”

“Howard Fitz. Thank you.”

“And we’ll see what we can do about your airship tomorrow morning. Before the depression in the city began, I used to work in an aviator’s garage fixing planes and jets for the military.”

“Thank you again! I do hope you can do something about the Dream Machine. It’s unlike any piece of flying innovation made by man.”

“Try me.” Howard chuckled.

“This is lovely!” Figment yawned, “I can’t wait to get some…sleep.”

“You just settle yourselves down and we’ll do what we can tomorrow. The bathroom is down the hall and if you have any questions, just knock on my door softly. The business with the city has given me quite a headache.”

“We’ll be gentle.” Dreamfinder assured, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Howard says one last time and leaves the room.

While Figment sets up the sleeping bag Howard let him borrow for the night, Dreamfinder carefully puts Rachel to bed. He unties his bowtie, takes off his shoes and socks, his hat placed onto the nightstand, and his suit jacket and dress vest now hangs on the bed board. All that’s left on him was just his white shirt and blue pants. By the time Dreamfinder was ready to hit the sack, Figment had already started sleeping. Living a day in terror really wears out a guy from their energy. Dreamfinder didn’t bother pulling the covers over him in the bed. He wraps Rachel with those blankets and holds her close to him in his arms, making sure she will sleep safely and warm throughout the cold night.

His sky blue eyes looked straight into her defeated face filling up with sympathy for her. He fondly feels her cheek again with his forehead gently pressing against her own. In his arms, Rachel could almost swear that whomever is holding her has got to have the warmest hugs she had ever felt. And finally, feeling the moment inside him Dreamfinder smiles softly and warmly. He places a gentle kiss softly on her Rachel’s forehead and holds her closer to him. A feeling like this has never entered him before in his life. To watch a young woman sleep in his arms this way brings warmth into his heart. Could he really be in love with this girl? A twenty-one-year-old girl whom he had met just days ago? Love comes by in many imaginative and mysterious ways and Dreamfinder has found his way in between them.

“You saved my life. Thank you.” Dreamfinder whispered softly. And with one last kiss on the forehead, he concluded, “Sweet dreams, my darling.”


	11. Chapter 11

The Dreamfinder’s compassion flows through his body from his heart into Rachel’s body. This new love inside him, unbeknownst to Rachel, is fueling both him and the girl’s system cuddling her flesh and warming her blood as she slept beside him in his arms. And for once, Figment is not teasing him about it. Meanwhile, Rachel alone has been left in a frightening darkness that had crawled inside her during the fall and landing of the Dream Machine. What seemed like an hour since felt like a century of mind-blowing terror. But that was until Dreamfinder started hugging her in her unconsciousness. A flash of warmth began filling her torso to everywhere else from top to bottom. He was so warm it nearly made Rachel cry again only this time, no whining. Never before had Rachel ever felt a kind of warmth such as this. As if the sun isn’t enough. She curled up gently, bringing her slightly closer to Dreamfinder’s embrace. The fear that had been filling up inside her is beginning to melt away. Whatever Dreamfinder was intending on doing to Rachel is working smoothly. When there was enough warmth inside to not feel so much danger coming back for her, the girl lowered her tensity. In this new warmth she felt so safe, safer than she had ever felt in her entire life. She did not want it to ever end…that is unless she begins to sweat.

This new warmth from Dreamfinder has made it a lot easier for Rachel to sleep. Deep in her mind the darkness is like a canvas waiting to be painted by inspiration, memories and dreams. The darkness helps her think clearly. All Rachel could do in that darkness is float silently until a newly created world appears itself in front of her. With Dreamfinder’s newfound spirit for her glowing in that darkness, it began to paint a new world for Rachel to enjoy. A pastel rainbow of primary and secondary colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple swirled around her like tye-dye providing enough light to see around her. A grassy surface formed at her feet. Trees of great height grew tall above her covering the atmosphere around her in green. The sky remained in its pastel colors. Little critters like bunny rabbits and chipmunks playfully scurried around her greeting her presence. Adorable, she thought to herself!

As Rachel reached out her hands to pick up one of the rabbits she notices something different. Her hands are a lot smaller than they normally are. She then notices her feet being smaller, too. In fact, she hadn’t worn these red shoes since she was in kindergarten. Even the small dress she is wearing is the same from back then. Nearby, Rachel spotted a pond clear as diamonds. She ran over there with a rabbit and chipmunk following behind her to see her reflection. In that pond, which served as a mirror for her, the girl sees herself so much younger. This dream has made her age backwards to being a six-year-old again! Her cheeks were blushing with baby fat, her hair was as long as her back filled with natural highlights, her little mahogany headband sat in her head, her dress yellow with little orange and pinks flowers, and her big brown eyes widened with amazement. She is exactly how she remembered herself so long ago. Perhaps in what might have been the most decent year of her life compared to how she had lived all this time.

“I’m six again.” said Rachel, “But why?”

Intending on thinking about it for a moment, she was interrupted by a sound. No, a voice, two voices in fact. The first voice was soft like a loving mother’s. She was singing. It sounded very quiet from a distance. Who is singing with that voice? After seconds of careful observation, Rachel recognized whose voice it is. That female voice is the same voice that sounded in her mind and echoed in her bedroom earlier today before the fall! Why was she calling out to her in the first place? Rachel followed the source of that singing. If the voice wasn’t going to show itself in her bedroom, then she might as well find it herself. What started off as jogging turned into sprinting. The louder the voice became as Rachel ran, the closer she was. All of the trees zipped past her as she ran to the voice. The grass was like a runway at an airport. The girl’s speed stomped on that grassy runway as she went on. She was determined to find that voice and not let it get away from her again. Faster and faster she ran until at last she comes across a clearing. 

In the middle of that clearing a small bluish light with hints of light violet and pink illuminated in midair. Clearly, the singing was coming from that light sprite. There is no one else around who can object to it. Rachel inched her way towards the little singing light. The singing grew louder as she came closer to it. When Rachel reached the colorful light at last, the singing stopped. Maybe Rachel stepped in a little too close to it. She stares at the light floating there for a moment. She had never imagined something like this entering her mentality before. It must be a new dream, yet something about it seems so familiar to her like a distant memory long past has somehow found its way back to her today. Even the colors in her light look a little familiar to her, but she could not be sure. The light gently quivered and flickered as candlelight would. It must be trying to communicate with the girl. Rachel took a few steps back. She figured she was invading the light’s space. But as she did, the light came closer to her.

“Sing.” the light whispered.

“Huh?”

“Sing for me.”

“I don’t sing.” said Rachel.

“You can, can you not?”

“I could… I just don’t prefer to.”

“Nonsense, child. You have a remarkable voice! Sing for me. No one will judge you, nor will I.”

“Uh…well…no.

“Child, you must not let fear get in the way of all the great possibilities you can undertake just as you have been throughout the course of your young lifetime. Trust me, I am your friend. I could never laugh or show disgust over you for what you do.”

“Who are you?” Rachel asked.

“Do you not remember, child?” the light asked Rachel in return, “We have known one another for only one day many years ago yet we have connected wonderfully despite it.”

“When was that?”

“You were the same age as you stand before me now, at the same height, with the same conscience, and in the same outfit. What you differ today is your mindset. In other words, your internal temperament building up inside you.”

“You can tell that?” Rachel blushed in guilt.

“Indeed. At least you are able to understand your social flaws.” the light pointed out, putting Rachel to her shame, “Still, that is not the Tomorrow’s Child I know.”

“The what?”

“All will be explained when ready. But for now, this is your dream and you can do whatever you wish. Though I do wish for you to sing for me just this once.”

“Well…alright. What do you want me to sing?”

“Whatever you wish.”

“Hmm…o-okay, I’ve got something.”

“You may begin when ready, child.”

“…Are you sure no one is around?”

“They are only nearby when you believe they are. You may clear them out of your mind if you are not comfortable with their presence.”

Rachel thought over what she should sing. There are so few songs she loves listening to. Most of which is classical music, trailer soundtrack, and of course Disney. But then she thought of a song from a musical that one of her favorite singers covered, You’ll Never Walk Alone. There was something about that song that made her feel happy, perhaps both the tune and the lyrics. Rachel positioned herself making sure what the light was saying was true about people watching. So far, nobody is here. And then she began:

When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high  
And don’t be afraid of the dark  
At the end of a storm, there’s a golden sky  
And a sweet, silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind  
Walk on through the rain  
Though your dreams are tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on  
With hope in your heart  
And you’ll never walk alone  
You’ll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on  
With hope in your heart  
And you’ll never walk alone  
You’ll never walk alone

 

Rachel’s singing was not like many children’s incredible singing. Her soprano voice filled the air echoing through the trees and attracting the woodland creatures to come forth like a real fairytale princess would. The girl’s eyes were closed. She figured it would be more comfortable that way since no one else other than the light sprite was around. The sprite just floated there enjoying the young girl’s voice. It flickered with excitement and swirled around the girl for her encouragement. In cases like this, Rachel would have been totally embarrassed to sing in front of everybody even without an embarrassing back story to top it off. But this time, even though this is only just a dream that felt so much real, she was actually enjoying herself.

She had forgotten about the sprite’s presence and everything else around her. All the things that had entered her mind from the forest trees to the tiny little woodland creatures began to disappear turning the surrounding into a limitless sky again. The only thing that didn’t disappear was the light sprite. It wasn’t ready to leave Rachel be in the middle of her solo concert.

“Beautiful, child. Go on!” the sprite cheered calmly, as is its nature.

As Rachel was continuing her melody, something unexpected interrupts her. Somehow, instead of a cheery fulfilling moment, she heard screaming. A man’s scream disrupted her song scaring the poor girl and stopping her mantra! It was the memory of Dreamfinder falling from the Dream Machine after Rachel had pushed him away out of anger. The Dreamfinder would fall deeper and deeper a ways down from where Rachel had flown continuing his own song of natural terror and peril. That scare has awakened Rachel from this peaceful spell back into her consciousness leaving the sprite behind to wander her mind again alone.

********************************************************************************************************

Gasping out of fright, Rachel awoke from her fainted slumber and lifted herself up. She finds herself on the bed Dreamfinder and Figment had placed her onto the night before panting heavily from the shock. Remembering what she had done just because she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer from her host had brought Rachel back to the pit of her own shame. Half of this was Figment’s fault, too, but there was no point in pointing fingers at each other. The push was her own maneuver of attack and that was all on her. She then spotted Figment on the ground still sleeping in his sleeping bag and Dreamfinder who had been sleeping beside her all night. But where is the blanket? That was when Rachel noticed that she had been wrapped in the blankets all the time, which probably explains why she had been feeling so warm all night after a brief moment of coldness. She then lay back down beside Dreamfinder, still sleeping after the near-fatal catastrophe that happened yesterday, and rubbed her eyes and groaned with exhaustion.

“Good morning, Rachel.” Dreamfinder yawned unexpectedly with his eyes still closed.

“Hmm? Oh hey.” Rachel grunted, “What’s up?”

“Wrong choice of words.” he chuckled.

“Right. Oh…my head! What happened yesterday?”

“You…you fainted after you and Figment saved me from falling and…landed the Dream Machine to the point of almost crashing.”

“Oh God in Heaven…I’m so sorry, Dreamfinder. I thought for sure skydiving with friends would have been fun to do. At least I can finally cross that off my bucket list.”

“It would have been fun. We just chose a terrible approach to it.”

“I suppose.”

Dreamfinder, opening his eyes finally and watching Rachel look up at the ceiling, reached over to her and kissed her cheek just as he did to her forehead last night. It was a big surprise to Rachel. No one has ever kissed her before, not anywhere on her face, and no one outside her family for that matter. Then again, it was very rare for Rachel to be kissed by anyone of her family. This was a new thing coming from a new friend…a man even.

“That’s to say ‘thank you,” said Dreamfinder with a small smile lit on his face, “for saving my life.”

“…You weren’t kissing me all night, were you?” Rachel replied.

“No, no I wasn’t. Doesn’t anyone give you any gratitude for doing a good deed even at times when you try to correct yourself?”

“Uh no, no one has.”

“Oh well. That will be the first for you.”

“Hopefully the last.” Rachel mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing. Forget it. So where are we?”

“Well, the Dream Machine is a little busted and the cabin is too messed up to sleep in, so we’ve taken refuge in a local’s house for the night. He’s even offered to help us fix the airship.”

“Good, good.”

“Say, what were you dreaming about?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Huh?” Rachel grunted again in confusion.

“You looked scared when you just woke up. Did you have a nightmare?”

“Not, not really. I was kind of weird actually. First it was all pitch black dark, which I normally don’t mind. It helps me think clearly. Then there was this warm feeling seeping inside me all night. I guess that might have been both you and the blanket.”

“How do you know it was me?”

“Well considering how you’re the only person laying next to me and that your arm is still over my waist, Mr. Obvious.” Rachel sassed.

“Oh, sorry.” Dreamfinder pulled back his hand and blushed a little. Thankfully for him, his beard was able to cover all of that pink.

“Anyway, when that warmth came in me some pastel rainbow colors covered away that darkness and turned it into a forest with tiny little woodland creatures and-”

“You said ‘tiny’ and ‘little’ in the same sentence. They mean the same thing.”

“Let me finish! When the forest and the creatures appeared I heard someone singing. I followed that sound through the forest and came across a clearing. When I got there I found this sprite. No, not like a pixie-fairy kind of sprite, but like a ball of light flickering like fire. That thing was the cause of the singing. The weird part about that is that it was all colored in blue with some purple and pink. It…or she, I mean, I guess it’s a ‘she’ since the singing sounded more feminine. And then when she stopped she asked me to sing, too.”

“Did you?”

“I was reluctant, but I did it anyway. It…it was alright, I guess. I was doing just fine until I…sort of remembered you screaming during the fall. I suppose that’s my fault and-”

She paused as she watched Dreamfinder look at her with some kind of dreamy smirk on his face. Either he is thinking of something smart aleck or he is trying to smile while still being tired from yesterday afternoon. Whichever way it goes, it looks legitimate enough.

“What?” Rachel said.

“You said you don’t play an instrument.” Dreamfinder remembered.

“I don’t.”

“Your voice is an instrument.”

“Not my voice.”

“You’d have to if the sprite you are talking about asked you to sing without asking ‘if’ you could.”

“Dammit.” she mumbled.

“So what can you sing? Anything from the 21st century? What do they call it? Hip hop?” and then he chuckled, “It sounds like something rabbits would sing.”

“…soprano…”

“What?” he smiled.

“…soprano…”

“I can’t hear you.” he played, “What can you sing?”

“Look. I can sing, but I just chose not to sing. Plus, I never had much practice.”

“So you’re shy. You’ve really got stage fright built up in you.”

“That and I don’t really like to sing, period! I don’t even like people singing to me either other than it being my birthday, cause what are you going to do about that? So if you or any boy plans on singing something to me for some intimacy, forget it.”

“You got some strict expectations, don’t you?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I’m just cautious about men.” she replied, “Besides, I’ve got better things to do than to find some guy to grovel in their shadow for. For one thing, I’m hanging around with you and Figment and I’m writing what could probably end up becoming one of the greatest best sellers in every shelf of all the bookstores in the world! Maybe, just maybe! The only thing is making sure I don’t die during the process.”

“You can’t be a bachelor forever, Rachel. Sooner or later, you’re going to want to settle down with someone.” He then said in his head, “Hopefully me.”

And then Rachel shrugged, “Hey, I’m twenty-one. I’m still young. Maybe I’ll either stick with what I said or change my mind when I’m a little older. Who knows? And Dreamer?”

“Yes?”

“Your hand is on my waist again. Take it off.”

“Oops!” Dreamfinder blushed again, “Sorry, I didn’t realize it went back there.”

“Sure.”

“Really, I didn’t!”

“Alright. So what about the Dream Machine then? Any casualties?” she asked.

“It got a little busted during the landing, but it’s not as severe as it could have been.” said Dreamfinder, “The cabin didn’t look safe enough to sleep in for the night, which explains why we’re all here.”

“Got any juice on where we are?”

“Apparently, a realm called ‘Iyrilia.’ The nice homeowner, Howard, who let us stay here last night told me and Figment that some things are going on with their economy in which their current governor isn’t being so fair with them.”

“What, is he playing dictator on everyone here like KaZing was back in Fillidore?”

“I’m assuming so, only this time it’s a bit more…business-like. Definitely not an ideal figure as far as I’m concerned.”

“What do you think we should do then?”

“I’m thinking we should look into it. Perhaps help anyone we can in the process. That is if you’re up for it.”

“Why else do you think I came for?” Rachel smiled, “Besides, I need to get my blood pumping anyway after the landing yesterday.”

“Good. Let’s get Figment up and take a look at the Dream Machine first. Then we’ll see how this place is running.”

“Hey Figgy, wake up!” Rachel raised her voice a little.

Figment has been nestling in his sleeping bag all night sleeping like a baby. Apparently he was not effected by the aftermath of the fall yesterday. Seriously, how does he keep having a good spirit inside him after a drastic event? To Dreamfinder, he’s like the embodiment of his optimism given that Figment was created with some childish delight. He cuddled and nuzzled adorably in his covers effortlessly to gain every once of sleep and warmth. He hadn’t realized it is now morning light. He must be in a deep sleep like Rachel had been. If he were a light sleeper he would have noticed Rachel gently tapping his back with her foot.

“Figment…Figment.” Dreamfinder murmured, “Time to get up, pal. It’s morning.”

But Figment would not budge. His eyelids are too heavy to open. But then Rachel steps in beside him.

“I’ve got this.” said Rachel. She leans down to Figment’s ear, clears her throat and shouts, “FIGMENT!” That did it alright. When Figment jolted his eyes open with shock and turns to Rachel, Rachel says, “Oh Figment, you’re awake!” And then she laughs it off.

“That was not nice, Rachel.” Figment remarked.

“I’m not sorry, Figment. I’d only be sorry for doing it if I did it while you were asleep at night.”

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder barked.

“Alright fine.” Rachel groaned, “I’m sorry you had to sleep so much for me to yell at you.”

“How do you live with yourself?”

“Painstakingly ambiguous discipline that was unnecessarily put upon me by my parents in their attempts to ‘mature me,’ stop acting like a child and leave their house forever when they’re ready.”

“That’s awfully specific.” said Figment.

“Trust me, I’m not always happy with the results. Compared to today, I was so much different as a kid. I don’t want to talk about it though.”

“Suit yourself.” said Dreamfinder, “Now let’s get ready and go find Howard. It’d be proper of us to thank him for the hospitality. Be nice this time Rachel, will you?”

“I know my limits.” Rachel smirked.

********************************************************************************************************

In the kitchen, Howard had prepared his guests some breakfast out of the kindness of his heart. To either of them, Howard and his guests, it didn’t look like much. It’s probably because without so much money leftover from the economy, it’s hard to buy a decent meal for even one man. All Howard was able to provide was one-fifth of an apple for each person, a small cup of cereal, and half a glass of water. Times are tough in Iyrilia. Really tough.

“So this Governor Crizwalke, that’s his name right, decided to play skinflint on the city and everywhere else outside of it for his own personal gain?” Rachel asked Howard.

“Yes.” said Howard, “Before then, out last governor had everything in our city, our homes, our economy, and everything else perfectly intact. We were all moving smoothly with our lives until his tragic death. And just when our innovative processes were increasing at maximum.”

“And no one knows who did it?”

“No one. Our police have searched tirelessly through the streets and out in our valleys for the killer until they came to the conclusion that he or she had vanished. No one knows the gender, the name, where it lives, its background, nothing. Each passing day as we’ve inched closer to poverty we keep trying to figure out who was responsible for it. There was even a notice of a reward placed all over the country for his capture, dead or alive. But even still, there was not a word of his whereabouts. Now our current governor has exploited our homes for everything we had without being considerate of our conditions.”

“Bummer.”

“Howard,” Dreamfinder began, “we were thinking that us three might go into the city and investigate on this matter.”

“What?” Howard exclaimed, “Oh no, I would not go in there if I were you. The city’s security system has documented every citizen’s identification in Iyrilia and their status from home owning and income taxes to debt. You three are all strangers in these parts. If Crizwalke catches all of you, you’ll be charged with a trespasser fee and confiscate everything you have. Without that flying machine of yours, you won’t be able to leave Iyrilia or go home.”

“Not if we hide the Dream Machine in a disguise.” Figment suggested.

“Yeah!” Rachel agreed, “I’ve read that in my country’s history that during World War II, the Americans and its allies who fought against our enemies had used natural resources like trees, rocks, and shadows to camouflage their aircraft from being attacked by enemy bombers.”

“Wait. There was a world war on Earth?!” Dreamfinder exclaimed with disbelief.

“…Yeah! There were two of them! Where have you two been all this time?”

“Apparently, not in either one of the world wars!”

“Then it’s best you thank God for that.”

“I will.”

“Moving along now.” Figment intruded, “Mr. Howard, I don’t think it should be any problem for us to go and explore what we can find in the city. You may not know this, but we actually came here through time and space using the power of our imagination! So long as we put our trust in our imagination, we can overcome every obstacle we come across.”

“Imagination? Every obstacle?” Howard asked, “Is such a thing really possible?”

“It’s hard to believe at first,” said Dreamfinder, “but yes. It truly is.”

“With that kind of talk, you remind me of a young boy I know who lives in the city streets. He’s a real handy kid who knows his tools left and right, up and down, and with his eyes closed. The kid knows his stuff, but more importantly, despite the depression in Iyra City he’s managed to collect every piece of scrap he could find and turn them into a useful tool to help the people who needs it most. He’s a brilliant young lad. If the last governor hadn’t died, the boy would have been on his way to college at his age in a split second. In fact, he may be the person we need to help repair your Dream Machine.”

“That’s great!” Dreamfinder said excitedly.

“Who is he?” Figment asked

“Where is he?” Rachel asked.

“His name is Alex Wavers. He lives in the northwestern side of the city on Cain Avenue and Bell Boulevard with his older brother, Ronald Wavers, in a secluded underground shack. It’s one of few spots in the city that has not been registered in the government system because it is very well hidden. As long as you three stay behind the shadows without getting caught by Crizwalke or the police, you should be able to get there safely.” Taking out a marker and a map, Howard continued, “Here is a map of Iyra City. You’ll want to head towards…. here, at this very spot. One more thing: because of Alex’s mischievous behavior against the government he too has a price on his head now, which explains why he and his brother are living below the streets. His friends have a code they go by, but I can’t tell you out loud. There are ears everywhere so I’ll write it down for you to keep safe. Once you get to Alex and Ronald’s headquarters, you’ll have to answer that password correctly or you won’t get in.”

“Sounds good enough for me.” said Dreamfinder, “Except one thing. Why are the police going after Alex Wavers?”

“It’s a long story.” said Howard, “His parents were both murdered when he and Ronald were very young. The police shot the mother when a riot against the governor broke out while she was trying to get home to her family. She happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time that day. The father died when Governor Criswalke ordered all the engineers and mechanics to build an army of military robots to follow under his command as commander in chief in the army, but he was the first to refuse and the first to die in that group. That was shortly after the last governor died and the crisis started ten years ago. He was my closest friend. And without anyone to take care of those poor kids, they have been living in those streets for most of their lives in this time of adversity. The police are after Alex because he always causes trouble with them starting with running away from the orphanage with Ronald. He has done all he could do with that brilliant mind of his helping all he could take care of, but even that has not made him able to make ends meet with him and his brother financially.”

“How awful!” Figment sobbed.

“So it’s just Ronald Wavers looking out for Alex?” Rachel figured.

“Ronald and a few of their friends. Whenever he and Alex are needing to stay out of the city for a while, they come to me and I hide them below the house in the cellar until things cooled down over there. But I’m afraid Alex’s antics won’t last forever suppose he is caught. Though his intentions are good, he’s the impish one of the family. He can use every wise-crack he can think of to get out of trouble.”

“Then I guess we better find them before the anyone else does.” Dreamfinder suggested. “We’ll see if we can find him and get him over here to help fix the Dream Machine.”

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t pull any of those wise-cracks on us either.” Rachel pointed.

“He won’t so long as you say the password to him.” Howard reminded, “Just watch your step. Though the city may look as glamorous as it could be, it can be a tricky path to your ruin.”

“Got it! Let’s go!” Figment exclaimed.


	12. Chapter 12

As expected, the Dream Machine is in need of repair. A couple of cables holding the balloon broke but the balloon remained, the furniture inside the cabin had been tossed all over each room like a seasoned salad, a few pipes that held in the purple steam had broken leaks and some glass has been shattered. Tsk-tsk-tsk.

“A few of those pipes are in need of replacing.” said Dreamfinder. “You think there might be some metal shops in the city?”

“I’m not sure.” said Howard. “I haven’t even been in the city myself since the depression started. I have a friend, however, across from my house that has been specializing in blacksmithing for the past thirty years. I can walk up and ask him for his help.”

“That’d be fine!”

“You ready to go, Dreamfinder?” Figment appeared with Rachel behind him.

“Just about.” Dreamfinder replied. “What about that password, Howard?”

“Oh right!” Howard remembered. “I’ll have to whisper it to you, though. You never know who is around here, spying from behind just about anything.”

Howard leaned over to Dreamfinder’s ear and whispered the password to him. Figment and Rachel tried to listen, too, but it’s hard to hear with Howard’s hand covering his words from echoing. All they can hear out of it was Dreamfinder’s grunts, as he understood what Howard is telling him. He wrote down everything Howard said on his hand and then hid it with his glove, perfect hiding place for a secret password.

“Right! Thanks, Howard.” said Dreamfinder. “We’ll be back in a while. If anything happens, we’ll send Figment along for help.”

“Help? It’s hard to get help from anyone these days.” said Howard. “With these new rules written by Crizwalke, it’s hard to keep a secret from them or talk to anyone without getting arrested out of suspicion. You really must be careful in there.”

“We will. Don’t worry.”

As Dreamfinder walks away with his imaginary friend and his new “girl-friend” by his side they turn towards the city where they are destined to be. But just as they were about fifty steps away from the Dream Machine, Howard gives out a great big yell.

“Oh yeah! I’d be mindful of the people’s appearances if I were you!” Howard called out from his house as he watches his guests leave. “Especially the polices’!”

“Why?” Rachel asked.

“Not every person in Iyrilia is human! In this world, we have a vast diversification of races and cultures roaming around here especially in the city! So don’t get yourself all freaked out over who you talk to!”

“No problemo!” Figment yelled back. “We’re good at communicating with people like that!”

While Howard is scanning the Dream Machine for anything he could fix, the three friends begin their trip to Iyra City, the capital of Iyrilia. Dreamfinder had written down the password Howard had provided him on the palm of his hand underneath his glove. Sneaky. It was only a half hour walk from Howard’s place to the city. As impressive as the steel skyscrapers look, it could not compare to how intricately composed the mountain is. Everything about the mountain is very well detailed from its structure to its tiniest pebble. Something is holding up the mountain in place somehow. Mountains like this are not natural back on earth despite it many exceptions of some unnatural monuments and occurrences, like the Stonehenge or the Grand Canyon. It’s nature like this that normally occurs in children’s books or novels. To be here to see this in person against the three friends’ own earthly knowledge is breathtaking. It would explain a lot as to why this place would be named the capital city of Iyrilia.

A dirt road appears before Dreamfinder and his friends that leads right into the city. As they follow it, the road begins to turn black indicating that it is now being turned into an asphalt road for city streets. In the middle of the road there is a broken white line for two lanes of cars. The right lane going forward ahead of Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment and the left lane going behind them. They walk up to the nearest sidewalk before a car has come by them honking. This kind of atmosphere is something Rachel is used to, but not Dreamfinder and Figment. They may have lived in London as a city itself, but not like this one. Everything around them seems more advanced compared to what they once knew of. While a majority of London had buildings made of stone, brick, and sometimes sticks, these buildings here in Iyra City are structured out of solid steel. In so much there was so much innovation.

Each car in the city is zooming by the three friends as they walk down the sidewalk. Seeing the way things are right is making them find what Howard said a little hard to believe. Crowds of business people are walking past them, cars and trucks are honking loudly, the sky is clear and blue, there isn’t much of any poverty or malice going on. The city looks like it’s thriving like any normal city. What could possibly be wrong with this place?

As Dreamfinder, Rachel, and Figment continue walking down the sidewalk they come across the large statue they saw earlier from the sky. The giant white pillar rose very high, about as high as a little over three hundred feet; higher than any of the skyscrapers built in Iyra City. Hundreds of little windows are spiraling in a coil around the pillar. Some of them are lit up, but it is hard to see much of that light during the daytime. At the top of the pillar stood a golden figure. A cat-like being with large wings and a crown on its head poses as it holds out its palm. On the fingertips of that palm are swirling orbs of fire and water in a circle of explicit balance. Below it is a moat filled with water fountains and water and some giant rocks sticking out for décor. This is indeed an impressive monument. But for what reason does pillar and golden statue stand here and what does it signify? Someone in this city should know.

“Wowie-wow-wow! That is one big statue!” Figment exclaimed.

“I’ll say!” Rachel smiled.

“Indeed!” said Dreamfinder. “I wonder who that is and who built this.”

“Could be anyone here or someone who might have died long ago.”

“Whoever it is, he must have had a great taste in art.” Figment suggested.

“Or she.” Rachel pointed out. “Women have a taste in art, too.”

“Who do you have in mind?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I don’t know…Frida Kahlo? Mary Blair? Any woman really.”

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, have you ever made any art?” Figment questioned her.

“Well…some.” Rachel replied. “But that’s unimportant right now. We got to find this Alex Wavers kid before something bad happens.”

“Agreed.” said Dreamfinder. “Howard said that the city’s security system has every name and face and their backgrounds living here and outside. If someone with authority catches us before we’re ready to show ourselves to them right now, we won’t be able to get to him and his brother on time.”

“Did he say Alex is at the northwestern side of the city or the northeastern?” Figment asked aloud.

“I believe the northeastern. At least I think he is.”

“Well, we can’t ask anyone here.” Rachel reminded. “Since Governor Crizwalke took over the city he’s been on the verge of learning every secret in the city and apparently, Alex Waver’s whereabouts is still a mystery. Howard did say he always helps out people who needed the most help. And since he and Ron don’t live in a suburban area as they should be without the last governor around, then maybe we can find them in the spots where it can most likely be filled with poverty.”

“Look at you with your creative thinking.” Dreamfinder smirked.

“I get a lot of time to think of what to say whenever I’m not around my parents or while I was doing my job back home. Much of what I think of are either pleasant or unpleasant.”

“Where did the unpleasantness go to?” Figment asked.

“My parents. Mostly my dad.” Rachel answered.

“I’m so sorry, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder, “Let’s focus on their location and get Alex to help with fixing the Dream Machine.”

“But first let’s find something to eat.” said Figment. “I know we just ate and I hate to sound picky after Howard was so nice to us, but I’m starving!”

“Yeah, me too.” Rachel chimed in.

“We did get small portions, though I hate to sound ungrateful.” Dreamfinder pointed out. “I suppose we can find someplace that’ll give some good service.”

“And good food for that matter.” Figment joked.

“That looks like a good place over there.” Rachel pointed out.

Across the street them was a hamburger joint called “Hammy’s Burgers.” Judging by the name, it had to be a hamburger joint. The sign showed it name along with an iconic figure of a fat 1950’s waiter smiling big holding a burger in his left hand while holding a tray of fires and a shake on his right. Figment imagined himself in that icon’s place as his mouth drooled a puddle below him. A fifth of an apple, a ¼ cup of cereal and half a glass of water would be enough to satisfy someone who is trying to eat small portions to get fit, but not Figment. Added that he’s a dragon, his appetite would be humungous and it’s not just for adventure.

“Oooooooh! Yeah! Let’s go there!” Figment said all excitedly.

“Come get yourself the hammiest hamburgers you’ve ever tasted.” Dreamfinder read on a chalkboard that sat right outside the restaurant door. “What’s a hamburger?”

Rachel did not just hear that. First it’s the World Wars I and II and now a hamburger? She slowly turned her head towards his with disappointment and gave his a grim look. A cold stare and a big frown blanketing her face is enough to wipe out any positive emotion out of someone’s nature for a while. Anyone including Dreamfinder.

“…What?” Rachel said. “…Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Um…yeah.” said Dreamfinder. “I’ve never seen or tasted a hamburger in my life.”

“Figment, tell me he’s joking.”

“He’s not lying, I’m sorry to say.” Figment replied honestly, “I-”

“Never mind!” Rachel held her hand up. “Let’s just eat. We’ll talk about this later.”

Rachel goes on ahead with Dreamfinder and Figment closing in behind her. They wondered why Rachel could be reacting this way? Whatever rants could be going on in her mind right now over a sandwich? Seriously?

“Psst. I think she’s angry again.” Figment whispered to Dreamfinder’s ear.

“How much more deplorable can that get?” Dreamfinder whispered back.

“I can hear you back there!” Rachel shouted.

They arrive to the restaurant door and check out the menu. Every kind of hamburger is listed in there from classic style to bacon and grilled onions. Even a custom-made hamburger was made optional for the menu along with french fries and a salad. A waiter comes up to Dreamfinder and his friends and escorts them to a table booth by the window. The menus are given out to the three customers giving them multiple choices of foods to choose from.

“Golly!” Figment exclaimed. “So much to choose from. I just can’t decide which burger to eat.”

“I’ll probably eat the smallest burger they have.” Rachel decided, “I don’t want to get sick.”

“My word! Sandwiches this big put together with so much condiments. How can people eat this much?”

“Extended stomachs. And if people were doing hamburger eating contests, they’d be doing years of practice while also getting an inch closer to gain heart attacks.”

“That’s a lovely thing to say at the table.” Dreamfinder sassed.

“Just stating the obvious.” she chuckled.

“I think I’ll just have a cup of tea. It’s good for rejuvenating my physical system.”

“Wanna do some yoga while you’re at it?” Rachel sassed back.

“That’d be terrific!” Dreamfinder exclaimed, “Do you know a thing or two about yoga?”

“Uh…no. I don’t even know squat.”

“Well ‘squat’ is when you bend your knees down and-”

“I know what it means!” Rachel yells.

“Just stating the obvious.” Dreamfinder quoted.

Rachel chuckled. For an air-headed genius, the Dreamfinder really can bounce his way back up. Perhaps humor is the main key to winning Rachel’s friendship. He watched Rachel smile and laugh. It was a sight to see for someone who cares for her he couldn’t help but laugh along with her. Her eyes glistened from the reflection of the window. They shone brightly that they could blinding both her and Dreamfinder. With Figment looking through the menu, Dreamfinder allowed himself to blush. At least then his own creation wouldn’t tease him. Yet Figment, unintentionally, chimed into their conversation with his idea on what to eat.

“Hey guys, I might just get the Triple Patty Thriller with extra fries!” Figment suggested.

“That sounds like a lot of food to consume, Figment.” said Dreamfinder.

“Yeah, Figgy.” Rachel joined in. “I’ve consumed a lot of burgers every once in a while back home and even I know that’s too much to eat.”

“Then maybe I should just do the Double Patty Delight.” Figment decided.

“Figment…” Dreamfinder shook his head.

“How much would that even cost?” Rachel asked.

Rachel took the menu from Figment to look for the prices. Something was wrong, though. She skimmed through the list of choice burgers only to find that the difference between the menus here at Hammy’s Burgers and the other restaurants back home is that this particular menu doesn’t show the prices.

“What the heck?” Rachel commented.

“What’s the matter, Rachel?” Dreamfinder asked.

“The prices aren’t listed here.”

“What?” Dreamfinder takes the menu from Rachel and looks at it for himself. Rachel was right. The prices are nowhere to be seen! He continued, “This can’t be. A restaurant must have prices by each item in the menu. Why aren’t there prices in here?”

“That’s what I’m asking!”

“Let me see that.” Figment retrieved the menu from Dreamfinder and looks at it, too. “No, no, I can see it just fine. They’re just written very small here.”

“Wha- how can you see the prices so well if we can’t?” Rachel asked.

“Unlike humans, a dragon’s eyes have great functional vision and an acceptable field of perception. I can see even the tiniest bug ever made!”

“Even microscopic sized?”

“Yep!”

“Figment, you never told me you could do that!” Dreamfinder pointed out.

“You should already know that, Dreamfinder.” said Figment, “I’m your creation! You gave me all the qualities I have now.”

“Right.”

“So how much are the prices?” Rachel asked.

“Let’s see.” Figment began looking through the very delicately written price list carefully and said, “The Double Patty Delight costs $30 each. The Triple Patty Thriller is $40 and-”

“Whoa! What?” Rachel snatches the menu back and shouts, “Thirty to forty dollars for a hamburger that size?”

“Maybe the hamburger is quality meat.” Figment thought out loud.

“Clearly, neither of you have ever been in a 1950’s style diner.” Rachel predicted, “They’re much cheaper than this back home. It’d be around $15 for a meal in today’s time. And in the 1950’s, the menus would price up to about 90¢ at max for a meal like this. In American money, at least.”

“Yeesh!” Dreamfinder groaned, “Well…maybe the prices for the beverages aren’t bad.”

“Twenty-five dollars for a cup of tea?” Figment read aloud to Dreamfinder.

“Okay, that just upsets me!”

“DOI!” Rachel yelled.

“I’m going to speak to the owner about this. Ripping people off their good money for food as trashy as this. Why don’t they just plant their produce and farm it off themselves?”

“You’re asking us?”

“Just don’t get too angry, Dreamfinder.” Figment warned, “You turn red as a radish when you get that mad.”

“Don’t worry, Figment.” said Dreamfinder, “I’ll handle this in a gentleman’s manner. I’ll simply explain to the manager that we are not satisfied with the prices and hopefully they’ll sympathetic about our needs and cut us a little slack.”

True to his word, with Rachel and Figment standing behind him, Dreamfinder walks up to the cashier’s desk. There he meets up with the waiter who had escorted them to their table booth just minutes ago. He is a tall and slender with glasses, pointed nose, pimples on his face and an oversized bucktooth over biting his mouth. Judging by his appearance and youth, the cashier looked like he was about 16-years-old and very nerdy. He seemed like his job is not giving him any self-esteem whatsoever. Therefore, he didn’t want to deal with any customers at the moment. But he must do what he has to do especially if it means facing an unsatisfied customer.

“May I help you, sir?” the waiter asked.

“Yes.” said Dreamfinder, “I would like to speak to your employer about the high prices he’s put in the menus.”

“Sure. Whatever. You wait right here while I go get him. Though I should warn you: Mr. Hamm is not one to place any blame on even from a loyal customer.”

“That’s fine. He should hear what I have to say anyway.”

“Your funeral.”

The waiter leaves his post to fetch the restaurant owner leaving Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment behind for a brief moment. The way Dreamfinder had talked to that cashier brought out a sparking feeling inside Rachel. That was pretty impressive, Rachel thought. She now sees that while Dreamfinder may have his optimism most of the time, he also has a sense of sternness in him. She can tell by the look on his face. Somehow, she feels safe with him when he’s like that. Figment can see the kind of look Rachel has on her face when she’s seeing Dreamfinder react to the waiter like that. For a dragon that has not experienced love in his own lifetime, he can definitely see some delaying connection going between his new friend and his creator.

After minutes of standing around, the waiter returns to Dreamfinder and his friends with a totally different expression. When the waiter left he seemed annoyed to be talking to people, but when he returned he looks as if he had just witnessed a powerful force breaking loose. His eyes widened, his teeth chattered, his arms stiffened; yep, something is definitely wrong in this building.

“Mr. Hamm will be with you shortly.” The waiter announces.

“Uh…are you alright?” Dreamfinder asked.

“You don’t look so good.” Figment added.

“I told you…he doesn’t like…being blamed for things…like this.” The waiter stuttered.

“Guys?” Rachel felt uneasy. “I think we should just get out of here. Like now!”

“Not until we get this settled, Rachel.” Dreamfinder confirmed.

“I’d listen to your girlfriend if I were you, sir.” The waiter said and then whispered to them, “I’m not supposed to say this to anyone, but Mr. Hamm secretly works with Governor Crizwalke and if you leave right now before he shows up, you’ll less likely get in much bigger trouble by those two together.”

“Oh snap!” Rachel remarked.

“You heard him Dreamfinder!” said Figment. “Let’s get out of here before-”

But before Figment could finish his sentence, a large body strode out from its office into the diner. As mentioned, he is large and also round to the belly. His face is chubby and fat all the same, his triangular ears flapped with each sound that is heard, its eyes darted right toward Dreamfinder and his friends, and his snout is scrunched and wrinkled grunting like a pig’s oinks. All that being said is because the large being coming towards the guests is a pig! And by the look on its face, he does not look as friendly as he could be.

Startled, Rachel, Dreamfinder and Figment stared at the pig in awe. They have never encountered an anthropomorphic (two-legged) pig in their lives. They felt the need to be disgusted by its appearance especially by its facial expression. However, they remembered Howard’s words about not being surprised by the appearances of others in this city. After all, Iyra City is filled with diverse people with different cultures. This giant pig is no exception.

“Now that is impolite staring at people like you’ve never seen a guy like me.” said the large pig, Mr. Hamm. He turned to the waiter and asked, “Chet, what’s all this talk about unsatisfied customers in my restaurant?” 

“W-w-w-well…M-M-Mr.Hamm, sir.” Chet, the waiter stuttered some more. “Th-these three want to f-f-file a c-c-c-complaint for…you.”

“A complaint? Well then, good sir, tell me all about it.” Mr. Hamm said to Dreamfinder.

“Uh…well, I’m-I’m sure your establishment is great with your hard workers and good food in all.” Dreamfinder gulped. “It’s just that…well, your prices. Your prices are a bit high to pay for the consumption of the items in your menu. The tea especially.”

“Really? My prices are too high? Oh, I am so-o-o-o-o sorry. Whatever shall I do to satisfy you since the customer is always right? Hmm…perhaps I can talk to Ol’ Crizwalke about this situation. I’m sure he’ll know a perfect solution to calm your disappointment.”

“Umm…I hardly believe this is all necessary. I mean, we don’t want any trouble.”

“Yeah, we can always find another place to eat at.” Figment suggested, “Someplace a little more…cheaper?”

“Cheaper?” Mr. Hamm exclaimed, “Well now, I’m beginning to see how really dissatisfied you are with my restaurant. That’s a real shame. Everyone in town comes to my restaurant to get a good burger in their hands especially in great times of need. Like the depression this city is going through. I give my customers what they want…for a fee.”

“A high one at that!” Rachel exclaimed. “I wouldn’t eat one greasy piece of schlump you serve even if it was worth a penny!”

“Is that so? You seem to be the kind of customer who believes otherwise about the prefect quality of my food. In fact…” taking a sniffling snort of the air Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel possess, he grunted, “I ain’t never seen or smelled any one of you three in here before. I take it that you all must be new here.”

“Uhh….” All three friends groaned dumbfounded.

“MR. HAMM! MR.HAMM!” one of restaurant cooks screamed.

“What?” Mr. Hamm called back, “What’s going on back there?”

“It’s the cat-boy again, sir. Alex Wavers! He’s taken a few burgers, a couple milkshakes and five packs of french fries and ran off!”

“Daw shoot! Don’t just stand there. Call the police force! Contact the governor! I want that boy captured!” Mr. Hamm shouted. He turned back to Dreamfinder and company and said, “Now as for you three, I-”

But the only people Mr. Hamm could talk to was…well, nobody. While Hamm was yelling at his cook, Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment sought their chance to escape from his restaurant. He grinded his teeth tightly with anger resulting to a scene of himself shouting loud oinks.

Meanwhile, the trio runs out of the restaurant. The mere mention of the name “Alex Wavers” rang in their ears, alerting them with the awareness that the person they are looking for is just feet away! Just as they got outside, they see a figure with a pack of food running away from the restaurant. That’s got to be their man.

“Come on! We’ve got to follow him!” Dreamfinder yelled.

“Dang it!” Rachel exclaimed. “I’m not a fast enough runner!”

“Do what I do, Rachel,” Figment suggested. “and fly!”

“And risk my neck by crashing into a couple buildings, people, and cars along the way? Even after what just happened yesterday? No thanks!”

“Suit yourself.”

The runner is a speedy one, Dreamfinder thought. They watched him jump over cars and duck under face-forward obstacles. When the police showed up in the runner’s way, they formed a blockade. But the runner was able to avoid it by jumping an incredible height over them. He jumped 20 feet over the police and landed safely across the street. Astounded by the runner’s persistence, Dreamfinder and his friends pressed on.

“Aw sick!” Rachel laughed with amazement.

“Look at him go!” Figment remarked.

“Indeed! That’s a really good jump.” said Dreamfinder. “Uh-oh!”

Because of that jump, the runner was gone. But unlike the runner’s uplifting maneuver, neither Rachel, Figment nor Dreamfinder could jump over the blockade like he did. In a flash the blockade surrounded the trio with their weapons pointed at them. The trio had no choice but to raise their hands in surrender. 

The police were not exactly human, but real living beings made of metal! Robots! Their eyes glowed red, their hands clenched in their firearms ready to shoot if either of their suspects takes one false step, they all stood in perfect formation like a circle with their victims caught in the middle. There was no escape.

“This is the Iyra City Police!” called one of the police guards, “Identify yourselves or we’ll be forced to fire at will.”

“Got any bright ideas, Dreamfinder?” Rachel mumbled through her throat.

“I’m thinking about it.” said Dreamfinder.

“I’m scared.” Figment whined.

“Don’t be scared, Figment. We’ll get out of this somehow with our imagination.”

“Yeah, like that’s going to help us right now.” Rachel answered back.

“You saved me yesterday evening with your ability of flight.” Dreamfinder said.

“Out of fear.”

“And belief.”

“Well I believe right now that we are about to get shot at by a bunch of robotic tin-headed police jerks!”

“Now is not the time to get all smart aleck!”

“Yeah, please no smarts at all right now.” Figment whimpered.

“Okay, fine.” Rachel quivered.

“Identify yourselves, suspects,” the police robot said again and continued, “or we will be forced to shoot at will.”

“What are you going to do with us?” Dreamfinder asked them.

“Report you to the Iyra City Secret Service for identification detection. All else is classified.”

“Well that’s thorough.” Rachel remarked.

As the police robots’ eyes glowed brighter, they inched closer and closer to Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment while keeping their artillery in hand aiming at them. Rachel felt the need to inch her back towards Dreamfinder’s. Who could blame her for feeling this way when at least ten guns are pointed right at her face.

Be brave, dear child…do not let the fear overwhelm you…

That same voice that Rachel heard on the Dream Machine and into her dreams sounded off in her mind again! Where is this person coming from, Rachel wondered. Why is that voice beckoning her? Now was not the time to be thinking of mystery voices. A much bigger problem is at hand. If the three of them won’t do as they are told, it will be the end of their lives for them.

Suddenly, a loud motor sounded in the air. Facing forward and behind the police guards, the Dream trio can see an automobile coming right towards them. A motorcycle with a sidecar is riding at them real fast. Behind the police there is a ramp unbeknownst to them. The rider of the motorcycle drove up and jumps off the ramp into the clearing of the police circle where Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment stood in fright. They immediately scattered out of the way as the motorcycle landed down, twirled a little and screeched to a halt. The rider of the motorcycle warmed up its engine as his keen eyes focused solely on the intruding victims of the police force. That rider is the same kid who escaped from Hammy’s Burgers with the food they cooked! You can tell by the food that sat in the sidecar.

“Get in!” the rider called out.


	13. Chapter 13

The rider yells at Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel to jump onto the motorcycle. They would have to be very quick about or they will all get shot by the robotic police. The guns are aimed at the four victims, loading them to light up and shoot like a laser light show. That definitely means trouble! The three travelers jumped onto the motorcycle with Rachel sitting behind the rider and clutching his waist tightly, while Dreamfinder and Figment are sitting in the sidecar. The rider twisted the throttle, making the engine purr and warm up. In a flash, as well as leaving street marks on the asphalt, the motorcycle zooms right through the police force’s circle bashing the stricken into crushed bits of metal and glowing lit eyes and buttons. The rest of the police force made ready to go after their suspects. Half of them transformed into fast driving machines with built-in weaponry while the other half chose to jump into their police cars in the more traditional motive.

The chase was on! The rider of the motorcycle speeded through the city passing by every car of many kinds that came as well as the pedestrians who watched the scene take action. Overwhelmed by the incoming pressure of the wind blasting into their faces Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel did their best to keep their eyes open in case they see any ideal alternatives to escaping their newfound enemies. They can all feel the wind, the leaves, and the loose newspapers flying at them. But all of that seemed harmless compared to what was shooting at them from behind. The police force is advancing towards our heroes with their incredible speed. They are blasting at them with their laser guns and guided missiles that spewed out of their cylinder-like cannons built onto the sides of their cars. Every bullet and missile that came at the heroes the rider would incredibly dodge them all with jerky sharp turns and insane tactics.

In front of them came a bridge. On the other side of that bridge was another party of police robots waiting for an order to take down the rider and its occupants. Armed and ready to strike, they kneeled down with their weapons pointed directly at the upcoming rider. With the police in the front and backsides of the chase, the rider is trapped along with Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment ready to share the rider’s supposed fate. It’s up to quick wits to come in and save the day! 

Below the bridge is another road with ongoing traffic moving swiftly toward east of the direction the motorcycle is heading. Down there is an empty unfenced lumber truck passing underneath the bridge. With careful precision of timing and accuracy, the rider makes a sharp turn in the middle of the bridge. At the push of a button on the right bar end of his motorcycle, its own attached ramp pops out both the outer sides of the motorbike and the sidecar and inserts itself in front them rider and the heroes at the edge of the bridge. As the rider makes it move to ride off the ramp for a jump, the robotic police forces from both sides started firing at them in attempts to get at least one bullet into one of the four friends’ bodies before they escape. The rider, however, still managed to dodge all those bullets and headed straight towards the ramp. With everyone bracing themselves for what is about to come at them the rider makes his motorcycle jump from the ramp and off the bridge!

“Aaaaagh!” Dreamfinder and Figment screamed.

“Wahoo!” Rachel cheered. This is the kind of thrill she had never experienced before in her life.

The motorcycle soared off of the bridge like a bird with widespread wings. The empty lumber truck soon turned into an occupied vessel made ready for the motorcycle’s landing. The tires bounced as it harshly touches the surface of the truck’s plank. Thankfully, the motorbike and the sidecar stayed safely on board being safely carried away from the robotic police force, whom had just lost the chase after its No. 1 suspects.

********************************************************************************************************

As soon as they were far away enough from the police in the northwestern side of Iyra City, the rider carries Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel off the lumber truck in his motorcycle. He makes sure they blend into the traffic flow and crowds of people so that the police or any type of authority would not spot them. So far, everything seems well. Along the way, the Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel took the advantage of sightseeing the city as they rode on. The skyscrapers grew tall and bright with the sun shining onto them. Yet that sunshine also casts its shadows down the lower half of the buildings and onto the streets where everything seems to be getting darker and darker by the mile. They ride towards a dark secluded area where the rider then stops his vehicle unexpectedly.

“Get off.” said the rider.

They did as they were told. Dreamfinder, who is still shaking from the excitement of the chase, holds onto Figment in his arms as he watches Rachel jumping off the motorbike from the back. A quietness stilled the air between the three friends and the bike rider. The rider didn’t even bother turning his head toward the people he had saved; he just continued looking forward. The trio just stared at him. They found it very awkward to be standing there without having to speak anything at all. Finally, Dreamfinder broke the silence.

“Are…are you Alex Wavers?” Dreamfinder asked.

Still, the rider said nothing. He only stared up ahead of the street as if strategizing which direction he would now take once he leaves. But that concentration is interrupted again by Dreamfinder’s words.

“Well, I just want to thank you for saving my friends and myself.” Dreamfinder continued. “That was very brave of you.”

“…Are you two married? You and the girl?” the rider asked.

Where did that come from, they all thought. What business is there having to do with a familiarity whether or not it was legit or whether it fell into that category or not? Dreamfinder looked at Rachel with a dumbfounded look only to receive an unsure expression and a shrug from her. He turned back to the rider and continued on.

“Uh, no!” Dreamfinder said. “Rachel and I are not a married couple. We have only just met some days ago.”

“Are you smart?” the rider asked. “Like ‘brilliant’ smart?”

“I suppose I can say I am. I used to be a professor at the Acade-”

“Then you’re not safe here. You’d better get out of town while you still can or else Crizwalke and his goons like Mr. Hamm catches you.”

The rider turns his throttle again showing that he’s about to leave them behind. Dreamfinder, being the Englishman he is, began to take a little offense from the rider’s attitude. First the rider asks if he and Rachel are married and then he tells them to get out of the city. Dreamfinder lets go of his flying companion Figment, takes off one of his gloves, and takes a stand against the motorcycle. He means business!

“Now wait a second!” Dreamfinder started yelling, “You can’t just ask us a personal question like that and just leave us without explaining why. It’s un-gentlemanlike!”

“Who asked you to butt in on my attitude?” the rider remarked.

“I do! My friends, Rachel and Figment, and I, Dreamfinder are here to-”

“Dreamfinder?” the rider scoffed, “Where’d you get that name? Did your mom give you that name just cause she hates you?”

“HEY! You ought to watch your mouth when you talk to people, young man…cat…person!”

“Katkin. I’m a Katkin.” 

A Katkin is a kind of cat relation with anthropomorphic instincts. As human as they can be, some physical features are cat-like. This Katkin's fur is yellow tabby colored, the hair on his head and the end of his tail are brown, and a tiny scar at the corner of one his green eyes. He's wearing a red shirt, blue shorts and green and white sneakers. His height is up to 5"6 and is fourteen years old.

“Fine. A Katkin. I’ll have you know that I had another name of origin before I was named ‘Dreamfinder’ and my mother never gave even a hint of hatred toward my family or me!”

“That’s right!” Figment exclaimed, “I was there through the whole thing! And what you’re doing is making false judgments against my friend for the wrong reasons” 

“Pssh, whatever. I don’t have time for this.” The rider started his motorbike.

But just as the engine of the motorbike started purring, Dreamfinder slams his foot against the front tire and holds out his hand. On his hand there is writing. Why is he showing the bike rider the writing in his hand?

“Jessica Wavers! Dreamfinder exclaimed.

“What?” the rider said, as he turned off the engine with disbelief.

“Jessica Wavers! That’s the password to your hideout, isn’t it?”

“Idiot! It was the password until you just BLURTED IT OUT IN PUBLIC! Now I have to come up with a new password so people won’t find me again.”

“Smooth, Dreamfinder.” Rachel said in a cool voice. “Real smooth.”

“Sorry.” Dreamfinder apologized, “But now that I have just told you the password, you have to take us to your hideout! Not only because the police may have studied our faces pretty well by now, but also because we need your help even more.”

“I already helped you just now: saving your lives from getting laser shot!” said the rider. “And I don’t have to take in anybody whether or not you get the password right? How did you even find out the password anyway?”

“We were sent by Howard Fitz from outside of town to look for you.” said Figment. “He figured you could help us three repair our flying Dream Machine so we could continue on with our adventure.”

“Howard, huh? Dammit! Hmm…Howard is a good friend of me and my brother. I guess if he sees you three as good friends of his, then I suppose I’ll have to live with having you three as friends, too.”

“Then you’ll help us?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah, I guess. Get in the bike. All of you!”

“Awesome!” Figment exclaimed happily.

“Then I guess your name really is…” Rachel paused.

“Yep. My name is Alex Wavers.” said Alex. “I live here in Iyra City with my older brother, Ron. I’m sure Howard must have told you that already. Now let’s get back to my place before the cops finds us again.”

“Agreed.” said Dreamfinder. “And perhaps keep our heads down for a while.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Of all the things Crizwalke won’t pay for are potholes on the street. Because of that, the roads are too bumpy to speed up on.”

“Don’t you have helmets?” Rachel asked.

“Five hundred bucks per person.” Alex specified.

“Oooooo-.” Rachel, Figment and Dreamfinder groaned.

“Is there anything cheaper in this city?” Figment asked.

“The cheapest thing to buy in this city is a piece of chewing gum.” Alex said. “And those cost $2 a piece. Don’t smash the food while you two are down there.” He was referring to Dreamfinder and Figment as they sat back in the sidecar. The food Alex stole from Hammy’s Burgers sat at Dreamfinder’s feet. He [Dreamfinder] made sure not to step on them as he got in.

As Alex started the motorcycle again and drove off, Rachel confirmed, “Okay, this Crizwalke guy is the worst person to trust with finances EVER!”

“Nobody trusts this guy for anything! He only became the new governor of Iyra City because he was the vice governor before our last governor’s assassination.”

“That probably explains it then.” Figment assumed.

“That and the fact that Crizwalke and the last governor were brothers!”

“Yikes! Even worse!”

“Why is he doing this?” Dreamfinder asked Alex.

“He’s full of greed, Walker Crizwalke is.” said Alex as he and his new friends rode along through the more unpopulated parts of the city. “He wants everything done his way alone and to do that he needs the money. Before our last governor died, he tried to make a deal with one of the foreign countries, Sicilon, about buying a piece of land to set up a new manufacturing factory and affiliating with some of the foreign companies there. Even though the governor and the president of Sicilon were very close friends, the president refused. Crizwalke wanted so bad for his brother to build the factory there because Sicilon is the best spot for natural resources needed to mold different metals and such for our military and advanced technology for our city. When he found out that the deal was disapproved, Crizwalke insisted that the governor should take those resources by force. The last governor, Governor Ted Crizwalke, however was against his brother’s advice. He respected Silicon and all the other countries boundaries and was willing to find other solutions for his projects. But his big plans to improve the city never got the chance to start its construction. When Ted was assassinated one day, Walker Crizwalke took his place and pressed on to wage war against the other foreign countries for their resources. The problem for him is that no one in Iyra City, or anyone in Iyrilia for that matter, wanted to take part in that war. We all felt we were perfectly fine the way our city was being run when Ted Crizwalke was still alive. Everyone in the city including some political officials tried to persuade Walker to not wage that war and think thoroughly on what is really best for Iyrilia, but he wouldn’t listen to them. He threatened to close down a few of the city’s colleges, businesses, and take away their jobs if no one would do what he would tell them to do. Riots broke out, hundreds of people’s lives have been wasted both intentionally and pointlessly, jobs in the police force, firefighters, and some army men in the military were taken away and replaced by obedient robots, our resources and advanced technology are being used in a terrible way, and to top it off, our economy is going downhill. Everyone’s money is being taken away for his own personal gain, pushing us all into the brink of poverty. And if anyone got in the way of all that with every great intention you have, you’re better off dead than alive.”

“Dude.” said Rachel, “That’s brutal! Makes me wonder if people aren’t being born with brains anymore. People like Crizwalke, I mean.”

“That’s another thing I forgot to mention.” Alex turned to Dreamfinder and continued, “You said you were a professor at wherever you went to school, right?”

“At the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, yes.” Dreamfinder replied. “Why?”

“Crizwalke is not the brightest guy when it comes to technical stuff like mechanics or engineering or anything like that. Even to this day Crizwalke needs highly intelligent men, all scholars alike, to help him build his robot army and enforce the people in Iyra City and all of Iyrilia to do his bidding or else terrible things will happen them. Like the waste of people’s lives and the money being taken away I just mentioned. Just by showing up to this oversized town, you’ve just put yourself in a dangerous position. If Crizwalke catches you and finds out how smart you are, he may just keep you here forever and make you work for him.”

“It’s been nice knowing you, Dreamer.” Rachel joked.

“No one is going to catch him, Rachel!” Figment assured. “I’ll make sure of that.”

“That is another thing to consider.” Dreamfinder pointed out. “I’ve started the process of using my imagination to create Figment and then opened my first portal into the realms of imagination. If Crizwalke does catch me and knows the secret of my success as the Dreamfinder, he might use my knowledge for his own terrible use.”

“What?” Alex said in confusion. “Wait a minute. Realms of imagination? You’re even more cuckoo that you look!”

“It’s true! Yes, it may sound far beyond fantastic, but it really is what Figment, Rachel and I do with our lives.”

“He’s right!” said Figment. “Dragons technically don’t exist in real life back on Earth where and when we come from. Dreamfinder created me with his own imagination and then brought me to life with his inventions!”

“I just started hanging out with these guys not too long ago, so I don’t know as much as they do.” said Rachel.

“Invention.” Alex began and then raised his voice saying, “You mean you’re an inventor?”

“Yes, I am.” Dreamfinder admitted.

“You invent things?” Rachel said with surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yes, Rachel. It’s my profession!”

“Me too!” Alex exclaimed. “I make inventions to help the people in need throughout the city.”

“That’s incredible! Then perhaps you really can help us fix our Dream Machine.”

“What’s a ‘Dream Machine’ anyway?”

“It’s a flying machine.” Rachel replied. “A steampunk-like blimp really.”

“Steampunk?” Dreamfinder said confusingly.

“For the likes of what your airship looks like, it’s what everybody at home would consider your Dream Machine to be. It’s a really the name of a fashion trend.”

“Oh good. I was afraid it was supposed to sound like an insult.” He chuckled.

“If I was saying something insulting about the Dream Machine, I wouldn’t have gone with you and Figment in the first place.”

“Fair enough.”

“There! We’re here now.” Alex announced.

“Oh my!” Figment exclaimed.

“Ditto!” said Rachel.

As the conversation came to a close, Alex had driven his news friends on his motorcycle and sidecar into an alley. It looked foreboding and dangerous for a man, woman or child to enter in all alone. The atmosphere outside was all lit up compared to the alley. While the sun has shone itself throughout most of the city, a shadow covered by the two buildings standing beside each other had enveloped the alley. Rats crawled by the corners of the buildings trying to hide from getting stepped on. Flies have gathered over the dozen trashcans rotting and buzzing all over the trash inside that looked like they have not been taken to the city dump for almost twenty years! The ground was oozing with dirt and puddles of sludge. And finally, the air was foul and putrid. No living man would stand to live in this alley even if he were paid an entire city’s treasury’s worth! The three friends saw this scene with disgust. They each coughed and clenched their noses wondering why Alex had brought them to this awful place.

“Good grief!” Dreamfinder cried. “Why’d you bring us here?”

“Through this alley is where my brother Ron and I live.” Alex replied as he turned off the motorcycle inside the alley and took out the stolen food. “Not the most glamorous, but it’s one of the few spots where Crizwalke and his men can’t find us.”

“You live here?” Figment exclaimed.

“How can you two possibly stand this?” Rachel asked.

“Most of the time, we don’t.” Alex said. “But that’s life for us. It’s always been that way since our parents died.”

“Howard told us a little about your parents.” Dreamfinder remembered. “I, for one, must share my condolences for you and your brother’s losses.”

“Thanks. It’s appreciated, but it won’t bring them back. Now let’s get inside the hideout before someone else discovers us going in.”

“Through that stinkin’ corridor?” Rachel groaned. “I hate to be rude, but isn’t there another way inside?”

“Nope. This is the only way.” said Alex. “Better hold your breath.”

With the food in hand, Alex goes on first. Behind him, his three new friends reluctantly follow him. Out of everyone in the group, Figment happens to be luckiest. Why? Since he can fly, he doesn’t have to squish his own feet on the sludgy ground Dreamfinder, Rachel and Alex have no choice but to step on and ruin their good shoes. Looking back behind them the light of the world had grown smaller and smaller, leaving it like an over lit brick being baked under the sun. In front of them was pitch black, almost invisible to the naked eye. The only thing that seemed to make a visual of in the area was the stench. You can literally see the stench rise from the trashcans as if smelling was not bad enough. One or two of the group felt the need to tear up in their eyes and throw up.

Up ahead of them a small red and purple light glowed. A door appeared on front of them with the light illuminating behind it. It must be the door that lead’s into Alex and Ron’s shelter home. With Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel right behind him desperately wanting to breath any source of fresh air, Alex has Figment hold the stolen food and then knocks on the door. A small window opens at the upper half of the door where two cat-like eyes stared out to greet its guest, if they could be called that.

“Whose there?” the voice from behind the door said.

“You know it’s me, Ron.” said Alex.

“Oh Alex, it’s you!” Ron replied happily, “I’m glad you’re safe. I was afraid the police might have finally caught you.”

Ron is a Katkin just like Alex only he is about three feet taller. He wears glasses and a sweater vest. Compared to Alex, Ron has a more careful mind. Especially when it comes to pursuing in building new creations and taking care of his younger brother.

“You sound as if you’re planning on having them catch me. I’m fine, Ron. Really.”

“Who are those three? Did they recite the password?”

“The tall bearded guy did…out loud in public.”

“New password?” Ron guessed with a sigh.

“New password.” Alex confirmed.

“Alright, come on in, all of you. And quickly! I don’t want the stench reeking the place as much as I don’t want any officials invading our home.”

“Is the air better in there?” Rachel asked.

“It’s 80% much better in here than out there.” Ron replied.

“LET ME IN!” Figment shouted as he pounded on the door.

Ron closes the tiny window and opens the door. Of course Figment flies inside first. He could not take the stench from the alley any longer. Rachel and Dreamfinder also run inside. When the door closed, they gasped for air. They could not imagine how anyone could live in such a dump. At least the inside was a lot less trashy-looking. There were a couple beds, a desk filled with metal parts and machines, five boxes of tools, a small refrigerator, lamps and red and black lights hung from the ceiling, and the furniture looks all used up and beaten. Everything inside the room is all crammed up together tightly. So far as Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment are concerned, Alex and Ron Wavers are living in absolute poverty. There’s no denying it. At least the air was a little cleaner in here.

“Got the grub, bro.” Alex announced to Ron.

“Cool. Glad you made it back alright.” said Ron.

“How do you live in this?” Dreamfinder asked with shock inside. “Under all this rubbish?”

“If you were standing in our shoes, you’d get used to it.” said Alex. “Not the best looking spot or the safest as far as people are concerned, but that’s life for’ ya.”

“How long have you two been living here?”

“Not long after Walker Crizwalke became the governor ten years ago.” Ron answered. “Oh! I’m sorry. I’m Ron Wavers. I’m Alex’s older brother.”

“Glad to meet you!” Figment greeted as he flew up to Ron to shake his hand vigorously. “My name is Figment! And these are my friends, Dreamfinder and Rachel.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Dreamfinder smiled.

“Sup?” Rachel greeted also with a small wave. Though Rachel looked like she wasn’t interested, she paid total attention to her surroundings and what was going on.

“Where do you three come from?” Ron asked them. “Daylin City? Down the river? Up the mountains?”

“None of them.” Rachel replied. “We’re new to this realm.”

“We’re explorers from a far-off land called Earth.” Dreamfinder said. “We all travel throughout the universe discovering distant worlds with our imagination and some invention.”

“Traveling through the universe…with imagination?” Ron stalled. He turned back to Alex and asked, “Do you believe this?”

“Hardly, but it sounds pretty cool.” Alex admitted.

“Yes, it does sound a bit unbelievable in a sense,” Dreamfinder agreed, “but it’s definitely far beyond the truth 100%.”

“Trust me, I still find it pretty hard to believe.” said Rachel.

“How do we know if what you say is true?” Ron asked.

“How often do you see a dragon around here?” she asked, referring to Figment.

“There are no dragons here. We figured they were just myths.”

“Well there you go.”

“Alright then. Assuming this is all for real, what are you three doing here in Iyrilia?”

“We had an accident with our airship, the Dream Machine,” Dreamfinder began, “and it is need of some repair. We spent the night at Howard Fitz’s house last night where he recommended you, Alex, to help us fix it.”

“The sooner, the better.” Rachel said.

“Well, since you three made quite a scene back at Hammy’s restaurant and bought me some time to grab some food on the go,” Alex chimed in and continued, “It won’t be long before Mr. Hamm informs Crizwalke about what happened and start a search party to catch you. Especially you, Mr. Dreamfinder considering how you can invent things.”

“You invent?” Ron sparked, “What sort of invention have you made?”

“An Integrated Mesmonic Converter.” Dreamfinder chuckled. “It started off as a giant machine with a helmet connected to it, but later on only the helmet was required. With it, I could tap into the energy of the human mind, or I suppose, any kind of being with an anthropomorphic mind for that matter, and convert it into dream power. It would charge up any kind of mechanism the same way as electricity, steam, or solar power would. While I was testing it to see if it was ready for a demonstration, I made my imaginary friend, Figment come to life. Instead of just turning brainpower into energy, it transfigured that energy from mind into matter. In other words, anything that would pop into my head I could make into reality. However, in an attempt to save my friends from a powerful force of fear and doubt, I had to destroy the helmet and unleash the dream power that was contained in it. With that Mesmonic Converter, Figment and I began our first adventure where I would later become the Dreamfinder. The helmet is no longer required for me to use now that I can imagine things to life for myself.”

“Incredible!” Alex exclaimed. “What was it made of?”

“Gears, pistons, light bulbs with 40 watts that would last for about 3,000 hours each, some pretty old equipment that is probably outdated by now. Especially by the looks of how this city is built.”

“No offense, Mr. Dreamfinder.” Ron interceded. “But telling us your story about your Mesmonic Converter, as awesome as it sounds, makes it all the more reason why you and your friends to get out of Iyra City as quickly as possible. If Crizwalke gets a hold of you and learns what you’re capable of, it’ll be curtains for everyone in Iyrilia.”

“Ouch.” Rachel spoke.

“Look,” Dreamfinder spoke firmly. “I feel like I can’t just leave you two or anyone else in the city without providing a good service. Until the Dream Machine is fixed, we belong to this world now. If you can help us fix the Dream Machine, then my friends and I can help you any way we can to help make Iyra City, even at the very least, trail on the path to civil and economic recovery.”

“That’s very noble of you, Mr. Dreamfinder, sir.” Ron said. “But-”

“Deal!” Alex said.

“Alex!”

“What? We could use all the help we need.”

“Will you excuse us for a moment?” Ron asked his guests. He pulled Alex and huddled away with their backs aimed at Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment. He contacted, “We can’t let these people help us.”

“Why not?” Alex asked, “We have a brilliant scientist on our side aside from me along with his friends. If what they say about who they are, what they are and what they do is for real, I think we should give it a shot.”

“You know how I feel about this. These three are strangers to us, yet you’ll risk their lives to get this city back in order?”

“Dad always said it’s best to risks sometimes.”

“Risks in your work and in business, maybe, but the lives of others?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Ron, that everyone’s lives in Iyrilia are still and have always been in risk for the past ten years! It’s fate that brought Dreamfinder and his friends to our world to help save our home and our culture. We are going to save our city, Ron, but we need their help. You know we can do it.”

“I know we can, but-” Ron didn’t finish.

“Then trust me.” Alex ordered.

Ron looked into his younger brother’s eyes. The look in the young Katkin’s eyes was both innocent yet sincere. Alex is right about one thing: the city does need help. Normally, Alex is right about a lot of things. Despite Ron’s warnings, he’s learned to put up with Alex’s endeavors over the years. In hopes of not letting getting their new friends in so much danger, he hopes this particular endeavor won’t be an exception.

Reassuring that Alex was serious about his idea, he sighed and said, “Alright, fine. I’ll go along with it. But I won’t like it until we are safely through this.”

“Great!” Alex smiled. He turned to Dreamfinder and company and said, “Alright, we’ll do it!”

“Splendid” said Dreamfinder with delight.

“Yippee!” Figment cheered. “Let’s save the city!”

“I’m all in for it.” Rachel smiled as she held her hands behind her head.

“Good.” Alex said. “You’ll have to be totally in this operation if we want to get this maneuver right. Here’s what we’re going to do…”


	14. Chapter 14

The Iyrilian Tower is the tallest building in Iyra City, approximately 1056’. It takes up to three to four elevators to reach the top floor. Every piece of material that holds the tower together is made entirely out of chromium and titanium, the hardest and strongest natural metals ever found with bulletproof windows glistening by the sun at every floor. Each quarter of the tower has their duty to play: the lowest corner, which is underground, is where all the manufacturing for the robot military is made, the main floor is the foyer and business workers and their assistants, the second tallest room is where the taxes collected from the city are counted and stored away, and the top quarter is where the real business happens. The top quarter of the Iyrilian Tower is where Governor Crizwalke and his men talk about their plans in running Iyra City.

The very top floor of the Iyrilian Tower, the penthouse houses Governor Crizwalke’s office. The walls surrounding him are completely made of bulletproof glass with titanium pillars holding the glass dome of the tower. In there, Crizwalke can see what is happening in Iyra City below, above and in a 360° view. Any attack coming in from the sky or the ground, Crizwalke can see. Any special event happening in the streets, Crizwalke can also see. He’s memorized and watched every person walking by the tower and all of the city and their maneuvers like a hawk. There is no way anyone can avoid their governor’s watch…with a few exceptions.

Coming up the elevator is Mr. Hamm, the owner of Hammy’s Burgers. Of course he’s wearing a much more sophisticated garment than his greasy apron and chef’s outfit. It would be inappropriate not to. Along with him is Chet, the waiter who failed to serve Dreamfinder and his friends well at the restaurant. Because of this, he has been forced to go along with Mr. Hamm to see Mr. Crizwalke himself. All this worry because of terrible table service, he thought. In Mr. Hamm’s mind, however, this is a different case.

The elevator doors open as it arrived at the penthouse floor. Mr. Hamm and Chet both step into the glass office where they see Governor Walker Crizwalke himself sitting behind his desk smoking a cigar.

Crizwalke is a man in his middle-aged years, coarse dark hair with silver sideburns, full in cheeks, 5’7” in height, and on the borderline of healthy and slightly overweight by the size of his stomach. He sits in his chair looking grimly at Mr. Hamm and Chet coming into his office. Beside Crizwalke stand a six-foot-tall man with a crocodile’s head, two human men about a decade younger or two than Crizwalke, and a Katkin woman. All of which are dressed professionally. The look on Crizwalke’s face grew more gruesome at Mr. Hamm and Chet got closer. 

“Hammy ol’ pal!” Crizwalke said smoking his cigar.

“Crizwalke.” Hamm greeted.

“I hear you had another incident with the Wavers kid again.”

“Well, I was going about my own business in the shop when one of my employees started blabbering at me about some unsatisfied customers. I go over to have a friendly chat with them and then next thing I know, that Katkin boy sneaks in and storms out the back with me grub again! And then I turned around and found them three varmints with the complaints ran off as well. I think those three nimrods are in cahoots with the cat boy himself.”

“Anyone we know?”

“For once, I doubt it. Them three seemed new in town. I could not have recognized their scent even with a single whiff.”

“I see. And may I ask who this young man is?” Crizwalke asked.

“This is Chet, one of my employees from the burger shop.” Hamm replied. “He’s the lad who informed me of the customers that escaped after Wavers.”

“Well young man, tell me about it.”

“W-W-Well sir, I um…I was doing my job at the cashier’s post when those three people came to me. They were…they were complaining about the prices in our menus and asked me to get Mr. Hamm outside to talk about it.”

“Yes, yes. What exactly did they look like?” Crizwalke asked.

“O-One of them was a-a-a girl with long brown hair in a ponytail, one of them was a purple dragon with tiny orange wings and horns, and-”

“A dragon? Dragons don’t exist!”

“I’m afraid this one does, Crizwalke.” Hamm vouched. “I couldn’t believe it either. It’s as real as the bacon grease in me skin.”

“A-A-And the third must be their leader. He was dressed in mostly blue with a red violet vest, white shirt, and the largest bowtie I’ve ever seen. He had a top hat with goggles and black shiny shoes. And he had light brown hair, mustache and a beard.”

Hmm…You’re right, Hamm.” Crizwalke spoke as he lit another cigar. “I’ve never heard of these people before.”

“We believe they must be new in Iyrilia.” Hamm said. “Foreigners, to be precise. They wouldn’t be had they known the rules of how we- I mean, you run the city.”

“Perhaps. And did you say that they’ve run off after that Wavers kid stole the food?”

“Yes sir. They followed him around the corner towards the Statue of Iyra. I’m not sure what happened next. I had to check back in my kitchen to see if anything else had been stolen.”

“I see. Then I suppose we ought to ask our police and see if they saw where they went.”

Crizwalke presses a button on his desk. It lit up bright red indicating that he wanted a police robot to come into his office. And that’s just how it went. A robot instantly reported to Crizwalke’s office and stood in front of him. The robot saluted and awaited his boss’ orders.

“Iyra City Police Chief N-1354 at your service, Master Crizwalke.” said the robot officer.

“N-1354. You were there when three intruders were running about at the Statue of Iyra, were you not?” Crizwalke asked.

“Affirmative. All officers from numbers N-1300 to N-1375 surround the suspects and the perimeter at precisely 1127 hours, but they escaped at the bridge of Sara at precisely 1135 hours.”

“Any visuals?”

The robot then opens a little door that housed a small color television inside. The screen turned on and began showing footage of the incident. It caught the sight of Alex Wavers jumping and running off with the food from Hammy’s Burgers and behind them Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel. Apparently the police never caught Wavers in the circle with the three strangers. As the police came closer the camera built inside the robots caught a great glimpse of the three adventurers, especially Dreamfinder’s face. None one of them would compute to any of the identities of the people who live in Iyrilia.

“Strange group of people and…creature.” Crizwalke said, referring to Figment as the creature. “Have you gotten any information on them?”

“We have identified the purple being as ‘Figment’ and the man in blue as ‘Dreamfinder.’” said N-1354. “The girl’s identity is unknown.” 

“Dreamfinder and Figment…what kind of ridiculous names are those?”

“Maybe their mothers named them out of spite.” Mr. Hamm suggested.

“Hmm…this Dreamfinder looks promising to connect with. Perhaps being a foreigner to our land he may know a thing or two about Sicilon or any of the other countries. Any information on this man?”

“Computing…” N-1354 said. He scans Dreamfinder’s profile and shows what information it was able to draw up. “Current name: Dreamfinder. Origin name: Unknown. Sex: Male. Height: 6’2”. Age: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown. Location of Birth: London, England.”

“London, England? Where the heck is that? It definitely isn’t shown in our maps.” 

“Suspects are assumed to be ‘aliens’ of our realm considering their background information, Master Crizwalke.”

“Yes, that sounds likely…and when there are aliens…there may possibly be…intelligent life! N-1354! I want you to gather as many officers as possible to capture this Dreamfinder and bring him to me alive.”

“And what of his companions?” N-1354 asked.

“We’ll…we’ll hold them for ransom. If this Dreamfinder cooperates with my demands, we’ll set them free. If not…then you have my permission to kill them.”

“Whoa, whoa, Walker ol’ buddy!” Hamm spurted with shock. “I know you’re the boss of everything here in Iyrilia, but don’t you think killing them is a little…harsh?”

“Living in Iyrilia has become far terrible enough to live with these days so long as I’m in power; a fate worse than death.” said Crizwalke. “I’d be doing these two friends a favor.” He turns back to N-1354 and says, “You have your orders. Now go!”

The police robot closes his television screen and exits the office, leaving Crizwalke in his office chuckling smoke through his breath and his teeth from his cigar behind his desk

********************************************************************************************************

As the day continued to pass into nighttime, Alex tells every detail of his plan that came into his mind for tomorrow. It was an excellent plan, cunningly contrived and immensely imaginative, but also very dangerous. It will only work if everyone does his or her part. If not, they would all meet a terrible fate.

The Wavers brothers allowed Dreamfinder and his friends to spend the night at their hideout, but there are only two mattresses worn down by the brothers over the years. Alex would have to sleep in Ron’s bed while their three guests would have to squeeze together on Alex’s.

The only catch is that every plan has a preparation and only Alex is capable of preparing his group for tomorrow. Assuming everyone had gone to sleep, Alex sneaks out of bed and draws himself to his desk. The desk light is turned on. He takes a screwdriver in hand screwing down the bolts in this metal box. He quietly adds a propeller on top and four legs on each of the corners. Supposedly Alex is trying to remain mute and not make a sound. The only problem is the bright lighting from the desk lamp. It glows as bright as the sun. Little did Alex know someone would still be awake sneaking up behind him.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed, Alex?”

Alex turns around and finds Dreamfinder standing behind him without his coat and dress vest on; just his plain white shirt and blue pants. Slightly tired, Dreamfinder eyes drooped heavily. He rubs the sand out of them and flicks them away. Alex tries to ignore his presence, but nothing can divert the Dreamfinder’s attention. He turns back to his metal box and continues twisting the bolts.

“Gotta get this ready for tomorrow.” said Alex.

“What is it?” Dreamfinder asked.

“It’s supposed to be a multipurpose aircraft drone; the perfect spy tool to use when I want to sneak up on Crizwalke remotely for information.”

“What can it do?”

“Fly, record sounds and events within a 50-mile radius, grab small objects with its applicable claws, and if someone sees the drone it can disguise itself into something less suspicious. Like a coffeemaker or a fake plant.”

“Fascinating!”

“Fascinating?”

“Why not?”

“I guess you can say that when you know a thing or two about inventing and building things. So how long have done things like this?”

“Oh, not for too long. I’ve had a fascination with technology my whole life, however. And all that led to everything I’ve been doing for, apparently, a long time now: traveling to incredible places throughout the universe and traversing time itself. It’s quite an adventure.”

“What do you look for?” Alex asked.

“Excuse me?” Dreamfinder replied in confusion.

“What do you look for when you’re on these adventures?”

“Well…normally, Figment and I just travel the universe looking for sounds, colors, ideas, anything sparks the imagination. But lately, we’ve been looking for this.”

Dreamfinder pulls out a picture out of his pocket of the geodesic sphere from the Academy in Florida. In the picture, the sky shone brightly by the sun lighting up the blue atmosphere. This gigantic orb-like monument stood ten times taller than any of the trees surrounding it. It is almost as tall as some of the mountains in the photo. Each of those triangles are made up of three smaller triangles made to form one large circle, mystifying discoverers who come across it. Something that even baffles the Dreamfinder himself.

“This geodesic sphere,” Dreamfinder begins, “has an incredible amount of energy hidden inside. My academy has been trying to harness that power for over thirty years, but each time they do that it disappears for a while at a time and then comes back to the same spot. No one knows how it got there in the first place, where it came from or why.”

“Where would it go to?” Alex asked.

“Another realm? Into the void? Who knows? Wherever it goes it always comes back in the same spot. The last time it disappeared it didn’t show up for as long as it normally would, according to the Academy’s chairman. That was actually kind of my fault.”

“Your fault?”

“It’s a long story. (See the original FIGMENT 2 comic miniseries.– Rachel) The point is that Figment and I are trying to find the vanished geodesic sphere’s current location and solve the mystery of its potential. By any chance, Alex, you and Ron wouldn’t happen to have seen this around Iyrilia, have you?”

“Well…I’ll admit this. I have seen this sphere before, but only in my dreams.” 

“Really? When?”

“It would be standing outside a great distance away from the Twisted Peek Mountain, the mountain that surrounds Iyra City, behind the spiraled hill like it was some kind of portal leading me into it.” Alex remembered as he stared at the picture and observed it thoroughly. “I went after it at the fastest speed I’ve ever run before. The closer I got to it, the brighter the light would glow at my face before I would get to it. And then I heard a voice say ‘Tomorrow will come for the child.’ The next thing I knew I woke up out bed and got blinded by the sunlight that reflected from the windows of the building across the street and into the tiny window on our door. It was so weird. I felt possessed by it.”

“That’s incredible! Oops!” Dreamfinder exclaimed aloud, finding that he had spurt out too loud and decided to quiet down a notch. “This information has definitely brought me and friends on step closer to finding that sphere.”

“How long have you been finding this thing?”

“We’ve only just started actually. Already seen one or two worlds without any luck.”

“And what about her?” Alex asked.

“Who? Rachel?” Dreamfinder guessed.

“Yeah. Is she a part of this, too, or is she just along for the ride?”

“Well, at first it was just going to be a joyride…but then I found something grand about her. Grand enough to involve her in this journey through imagination.”

Alex watched Dreamfinder stare at the sleeping Rachel. She’s holding Figment in her arms like he was a stuffed animal on that old used-up bed. He smiles at her as she sleeps, giving Alex an idea of what Dreamfinder is really thinking. The Katkin scoffed and chuckled at this idea.

“Oh, I see.” Alex said. “You and she, you two are—”

“Oh no!” Dreamfinder blushed, realizing how really bad he is at keeping love secrets to himself. “Rachel and I are not- I mean, not yet- I just…well, as beautiful and charming as she is in her way, that’s not my entire case.”

“How so?”

“A few days ago, Rachel and the two of us first met when we were giving a demonstration of how our imagination could become a reality. We brought her onstage to where she got a huge stage fright problem and asked her to think of herself doing something amazing. And she did, she was flying! But it didn’t end so well. When she opened her eyes to see what was happening, she freaked out with some kind of horror. She destroyed a booth by accident and then started to fall. We saved her just in time, but I doubt she was able to cut that memory from her mind. It left me with a puzzling question. You know how many people can be overwhelmed by fear to where it can sometimes prevent people from achieving their goals?”

“Yeah?”

“I noticed a lot of fear written on the poor girl’s face when she realized she was flying for the first time.” Dreamfinder said. “And then yesterday when we were all falling down with the Dream Machine, Rachel saved me while flying in midair with the same fearful look on her face from before. So how could Rachel, of all people, use the power of her own imagination while letting her fears overwhelm her at the same time?”

“Maybe…perhaps it could…it’s possible that…actually, I got nothing.” Alex gave up.

“That makes two of us.” Dreamfinder smiled. “But enough about me. Tell me about you, Alex. Howard has told me how brilliant enough you are to get yourself into college. I think I’ve definitely seen enough proof sitting on the table in front of you.”

“I want to go to college, but ever since Crizwalke took charge of the city he’s only been allowing people become students only if they have their full loyalty on him.”

“I’ve never been one for listening to authority myself. You obviously don’t have that either.”

“That and considering how much trouble I’ve caused against him, it’s possible my permanent record will prevent me from attending any college in this world. Especially since I pretty much have nobody but Ron to help pay for it. But we’re both flat broke.”

“How do you get all this equipment then?”

“I stole a few tools from Crizwalke’s men and I get the material I need to build with from the City dump. It’s hard to find good metal when Crizwalke is using it all to build his armies.”

“So you steal?”

“Only to survive. We never steal money, though. Not like we could anyway.”

“I know how you feel.” Dreamfinder mumbled.

“That’s life for us.” Alex stated. “Even when Crizwalke is good and gone, I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to learn at any college built in this world.”

This hurt Dreamfinder deep inside. To see someone lose their chances of learning at even a single a college for a number of reasons is a treacherous thing to think about. He thought in his head to see if there was something he can do about this cause. And then it pooped into him.

“You know, Alex. The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus back in my own home world has an Invention and Ingenuity department where new students could begin their studies in technologies and science. I have an old friend who works there I can contact. You can come with us back home and see if they can allow you to join with them.”

“What? For real? Is that even possible?” Alex stood up from his chair excitedly.

“Absolutely. You and Ron could attend there if they like you two enough.”

“But can they actually allow foreign aliens like us to attend a school like that?”

“Hey, if they can hire a sound sprite from a different realm of imagination to teach at the Academy, I’m pretty sure they can allow two Katkins to take a seat there as well.”

“Th-thanks, Dreamfinder. I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything yet. First we’ve got to repair the Dream Machine and get out of here before Crizwalke catches us.”

“Anything you say. All that’s left to do is finish up on building this drone. Want to give me a hand with it?”

“You want me to help?” Dreamfinder asked with surprise.

“You’re an inventor, aren’t you?” Alex smiled.

He handed Dreamfinder a screwdriver and Dreamfinder happily took it. Dreamfinder allowed Alex to tell him what to do so long as he didn’t say anything otherwise about Alex’s invention. They both worked as quietly as possible, making sure to wake everyone else up. 

Rachel however, with her sensitive hearing, could hear the feint clicking and clanking of screwdrivers and thumping of fingers and elbows bumping onto the tabletop. She notices the light slightly blinding her even with her eyes closed. Because of this, she’d burry her face towards the fabric of the bed and away from the light. Rachel continues to hold firmly onto Figment, for she could not go to sleep without holding anything plush or comfortable in her arms. Evidently, Figment seems to be both those things. Figment has taken pleasure in Rachel’s warmth. Instead of normally teasing around, he has begun to understand why Dreamfinder would form an admiration for her. It’s a warm sweet feeling.

They tinkered late into the night and up until morning when Dreamfinder and Alex finally finished building the drone in its final form. A camera has been connected at the center of the drone with its own compact power generator behind it. The only problem is that the generator isn’t working so hot. Dreamfinder has noticed the Katkin’s irritation. Providing his soreness he may just as well be tired from staying up all night putting the drone together.

“Is it all set?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Not yet.” Alex yawned. “The power generator for the drone is the hardest to figure out. Every time I try to use different sources of energy, it overloads the system, it gets too hot and it either spazzes off or explodes at my face. I’ve tried solar power, manual power, wind power and even pickle juice!”

“Pickle juice?”

“You’d be surprised at what pickle juice can do for your machinery. But still, no kind of energy can makes this thing work.”

“Hmm…have you considered dream power? There’s nothing better than that.”

“What? Dream power?”

“Of course.”

“I think your brain must be fried from working all night.”

“That’s what I thought at first when I first created Figment with my Mesmonic Converter long ago. It works wonders!”

“How does it work?” Alex asked.

“You simply just use your imagination.” Dreamfinder replied.

“You’re kidding.”

“Just imagine your machine to work and see what happens. You would be surprised at what dream power can do for you.”

“No strings?”

“Not a thread.”

Should he believe him? Could Alex possibly believe what Dreamfinder says about dream power is true? Well, it’s worth a shot. Alex looks at his drone for a moment and concentrates. The young Katkin wants so badly for the drone to work. He imagines the drone actually flying. Nothing is happening. He imagines is filming Crizwalke’s secrets. Still nothing is happening. He imagines the drone doing what it is built for. Just when Alex is about to give up, the propeller on the drone started turning by itself. How is it possible, he thought. The drone isn’t even plugged to the custom charger he built. It lifted itself off the table and flew a circle around Rachel, Figment and Ron Wavers who just woke up from bed. Alex is awed by the results. Dream power is the way to go.

“Dream power?” Alex guessed.

“Most definitely.” Dreamfinder smiled.

“That is wicked awesome!” Ron exclaimed. “And I don’t normally compliment things with that tone.”

“Wicked awesome?” Alex smirked. “Since when did you start talking like I do?”

“This moment is just an exception.”

“What’s happening? I just missed it.” Rachel yawned.

“I sense some dream power going on.” said Figment.

“Alex just used dream power to work his miniature flying machine.” Dreamfinder announced.

“I don’t believe that.” Rachel scoffed.

“That’s because you didn’t see it in time.” 

“Oh well.”

“Okay, so now that everyone is awake, “Alex pointed out, “does everyone remember their role for the plan?”

“Do I really have to do this?” Rachel groaned.

“I’m sorry, Rachel.” Dreamfinder apologized.

“I hate to say it, Miss Rachel,” Ron started, “but the plan won’t work unless you cooperate.”

“Who knows? Maybe you’ll look better this way.” Figment figured.

“Ready?” Alex asked.

Rachel groans.


	15. Chapter 15

With the sun shining bright in Iyrilia, it’s time to put Alex Waver’s plan in action. He has Dreamfinder jumping into the sidecar with him and drive off, leaving Rachel, Figment and Ron behind. Every streak of the morning light creeps over the city by the inch. Soon the robot police will spot the two heroes and chase them down for Crizwalke. Alex figured Crizwalke would come to know of Dreamfinder face since his near fiasco with getting caught by the police the day before. With that being said he decided not to have Dreamfinder where a helmet despite their safety so they would be recognizable. But why draw so much attention to themselves if they want to stay away from Crizwalke?

As Dreamfinder braces himself, Alex speeds up the sidecar. They begin to enter the traffic circle where in the center the statue of the winged golden cat being stood at the top of the pillar. It is the most public and prevalent spot in Iyra City crawling with robot police who guarded the statue. Each officer is standing no more or less than ten feet from each other as they surrounded the watercourse that circled around the pillar. Their sensors built into their red glowing eyes searched the area for any mishaps, criminals or any out-of-order phenomenons. Their main goal is to find, capture and bring Dreamfinder to Governor Crizwalke alive. They are allowed to do whatever they want to his friends only if Dreamfinder refuses to negotiate with Crizwalke’s terms.

Just as the police are getting comfortably settled in their posts they spot Dreamfinder and Alex driving into the traffic circle. Their sensors identified them as the suspects Crizwalke wants in his power. They begin charging up their built-in firearms in a quick pace. Aiming carefully they point at their prey. At the moment they shoot, Alex cranks up the power in his sidecar and speeds away with the Dreamfinder at his side. The robots miss their targets and the chase is on again! The police transform their walking legs into wheels like segways. The acceleration is intense. They rotate faster than horsepower.

Leaving the traffic circle, the chase heads towards the east side of the city. With all means of transportation cramming up almost every inch of the streets it makes it harder for the robot police to catch up to Alex and Dreamfinder. They flash their sirens loudly for the public to take notice, but because of traffic the cars and trucks won’t move aside for them to get through. What’s even more confusing to get through are the skyscrapers themselves. They tower over the people of Iyra City like walls of mazes that are impossible to get through. This is a great advantage for the Dreamfinder’s escape. Especially since Alex knows the way around town. 

But this advantage did not last long. Alex drives Dreamfinder in the sidecar toward the eastern cliff of the city where down below is the edge of the river flows from beneath the ground, under the mountain where Iyra City is located and continues running down in a large stream. What divides the city from the cliff is a metal fence that provides entrance. Alex speeds up the sidecar towards that fence hoping to keep the chase going out of town. But the robot police got to the fence first. They blocked off the entire “T” intersection and the fence, trapping both the heroes inside their circle. There is no ramp to jump off of, no gap in the crowd of robots to squeeze out of or even pole or ladder to climb up on. Alex and Dreamfinder are totally trapped.

The robot police put Dreamfinder and Alex in handcuffs and confiscated the sidecar. They drag the heroes away in their patrol cars, making sure to lock them inside, and drove them straight to the Iyrilian Tower where Crizwalke awaits their arrival. Meeting Crizwalke in person is like walking in a living nightmare. The worst he could do to people is taking away whatever precious thing they possess. To face death is the people’s idea of such sweet relief.

They arrive at the tower where people who walk by the entrance run away fast. The police pulled Dreamfinder and Alex out of the sidecar and pushes them into the tower. The main lobby of the tower in enormous! Businesspersons are quickly walking about with their briefcases chattering in their cell phones. But when they see the police come marching in with prisoners, they know this means trouble. They all stand aside with respect for the police and deep sympathies for the captured men. When people are captured in Iyra City, they are at the mercy of Crizwalke himself. No good can come for their governor under any circumstance.

Stepping into the elevator, one of the officers pushes the button that would take them all the way up to the top floor: the penthouse and Governor Crizwalke’s office. The doors close and the elevators starts elevating. Then elevator music begins playing classical piano music as it bounces off the walls of the small room.

“Classy.” said the young Katkin.

Other than the elevator music it was a quiet wait. It had taken three and a half minutes to reach the top floor. Once it finally got up there, the doors opened. There are two long lines, one on each side, of security guards in formation. The police officers push Dreamfinder and Alex toward the desk at the other end of the room where Crizwalke sat with Mr. Hamm standing behind him. The governor lights up a cigar and hands one to Hamm. Things are looking mighty bleak for the Dreamfinder and the young Katkin.

Crizwalke begins to glare at the Dreamfinder as soon as he and Alex presented themselves at his desk. The look on his face is stern is a smidge of drudgery in his eyes. To see a “man” like Dreamfinder walk into his office the way he is dressed made Crizwalke believe he came from some kind of a circus act.

“Good work, officers.” said Crizwalke. “I’ll take it from here.”

The robot officers step away from Dreamfinder and Alex and leave the office room. Crizwalke steps up from his chair and walks toward Dreamfinder to get a better look at him. He gets close enough to Dreamfinder to where both their eyes would meet three inches away from each other.

“So…this is the Dreamfinder.” Crizwalke smirked. “And you’ve brought Alex Wavers with you, too. That’s a much greater gain.”

Alex gave a grim look to Crizwalke. Like water and oil, both their relationships would never mix.

“Tell me, Dreamfinder, where exactly did you come from?” Crizwalke asked.

“Why do you want to know where I came from?” Dreamfinder replied questionably in a strange tone..

“I’m just curious. I know just about every person in Iyrilia except for you. You’re quite a curious fellow yourself, ol’ boy, showing yourself out of the blue from an unknown area of the world and causing quite a ruckus in my buddy Hamm’s restaurant.” Crizwalke then pulls out a small box, opens it and says, “Cigar?”

“Thank you, only I don’t smoke.” Dreamfinder said.

“Oh, I see. Now then, let’s talk business. Officers, have the Katkin step back for a moment please. Thank you.” Wrapping his arm around Dreamfinder, he continues. “Now Dreamfinder, my sources tell me you are considered a sort of…alien to Iyrilia. Is that correct?”

“In a matter of speaking, yes.”

“And yet you look so human…and a little shorter than I expected. And no purple dragon either. Are you local?”

“No.”

“Then how exactly are you here?”

“That’s a secret.”

“Why are you here?” Crizwalke asked.

“My friends and I are just passing through.” Dreamfinder replied.

“I see. And for what purpose, may I ask?”

“We have a place to go to. For our…own business.”

“What do you work for?”

“I am a…inventor and world traveler.”

“Inventor? Is that right? That’s quite a grand profession you’ve got there. What have you invented?”

“Uh…nothing that would interest you, I’m afraid. None of my inventions ever worked anyway.”

“Well that’s quite a shame because I was thinking about offering you a job as Head Inventor and Architect of Iyra City.” Crizwalke suggested. “You’d have your own desk, people would respect you, have a steady paycheck, and you’d have the privilege to build whatever you desire wherever you want.” 

“That’s awfully tempting seeing as how successful your business is.” Dreamfinder remarked.

“Think of it, kid. Whatever you can build will be of great use to me in running my city. Armies, aircrafts, secret undercover agencies, you name it, will make the people of the city—no, all of Iyrilia fall into our hands, in our power. Everyone down there.”

“Oh dear…” Dreamfinder mumbled to himself.

“Take this offer and I give you what you wish as well as the perfect well being of your friends.”

“My friends? What happens to them?”

“Well, I’d dispose of them if you oppose. Work for me, and they go free. So what do you say?”

“Well, I do love my friends. They mean the world to me. And to think I could tell you every one of my greatest secrets for you to use to run this great city. This is a toughie. I’d give you a perfectly good ‘yes’ or ‘no’ myself…if I were the real Dreamfinder himself.”

Crizwalke is confused. What did he mean by “real Dreamfinder himself?” Before he could ask, Dreamfinder takes off his hat. And to make this even more interesting, he takes off his own mustache and beard. How could he do that without shaving cream, Crizwalke wondered. Now everything is starting to make a little more sense. This man isn’t even the Dreamfinder at all. In fact, this person isn’t even a man!

 

IT’S RACHEL!

 

But how could this happen? Rachel is here instead of Dreamfinder and her hair is cut down to look a lot like Dreamfinder. Her ponytail is gone and some of the hair that she used as a beard and mustache are whatever little strands are left from her pretty little head. This shocked Crizwalke and everyone in the room incredibly…except for Alex who stood by the security robot guards smirking.

“What the-? Who the damn sakes are you?” Crizwalke yelled.

Hamm stepped up to Crizwalke’s side and sniffed the girl. He said, “Hey! I’ve seen this girl with the Dreamfinder and that purple dragon. She’s one of them!”

“My name is Rachel. I am here to substitute for Mr. Dreamfinder himself.”

“A fake?” Crizwalke realized. “Now this is just amusing to me. But at least we have Alex Wavers, the biggest troublemaker in my city.”

“Ooooooh…yeah, I don’t think so.” said the Katkin. “Looks can be deceiving. I’d have to be a lot shorter to be my younger brother. I’m Ron Wavers, Alex’s older brother.”

“What? But if you two are not Dreamfinder or Alex Wavers, then where are they?”

“They’re playing hide-and-seek in the city.” Rachel sassed. “They’re pretty good at hiding, I must admit. You’ll never find them. And I’m more than sure Dreamfinder will never side for the likes of you!”

“Oh, I will find him.” Crizwalke assured. “Guards! Contact the police and tell them to be on a lookout for the real Dreamfinder and bring him to me alive. You can do what you want with whoever is with him.” He turns back to Rachel and Ron and says, “In the meantime, I’d love to have a little chat about what your pals are up to.”

“Do your worst.” Ron sneered.

********************************************************************************************************

Meanwhile, deep in the depths underneath the city, the real Dreamfinder, in his white shirt and Rachel’s tunic and pants that are too small for him, and Alex Wavers, in his brother’s clothing, along with Figment are creeping through the underground caverns. There, the river that flows past Iyra City runs through and it used a secret reservoir for the poor people of Iyrilia who intend on keeping Crizwalke out of their lives. There are dirt sidewalks on each side. The Iyrilian people who wanted to stay out of trouble silently used it for almost the entire time Walker Crizwalke had been in office. The water drops that fall from the ceiling make the only sound in the caverns until it is overpowered by the feint sound of feet shuffling through the dirt ground, spelunking through the caves.

“I do hope Rachel and Ron are alright.” Dreamfinder said aloud.

“Me too.” said Figment as he quivered and flapped with his tiny wings through the cool whispering air.

“They’ll be fine.” said the real Alex Wavers. “And if not, Ron will contact me with his wrist watch.”

“His watch?” Dreamfinder said in confusion.

“Yeah, my watch not only tells time but it can also be used as a camera and telephone service. I made one each for my brother and me. No one else in the world has one.”

“Wow!” Figment exclaimed. “We should get one of those, Dreamfinder!”

“Didn’t you hear him, Figment?” Dreamfinder chuckled. “He just said no one else in Iyrilia has one but him and Ron.”

“Thank you for clarifying that me.” Alex smirked.

“So where does this tunnel lead to?” Figment asked.

“This map has been used in olden times to get around these mazes for secret attacks in wars long before Iyra City was built within the Twisted Peek Mountain. When Walker Crizwalke took office ten years ago, everyone inside and outside the city has secretly been using it to get to places without coming across any authority officials. This route should take us straight back to Howard Fitz’s neighborhood. Ron and I use it to get there all the time.”

“You really must be scared of Crizwalke, aren’t you?.”

“I’m not scared of Crizwalke. He can die in ditch for all I care. The only I thing am scared is what he could possibly do to my friends.”

“What about Ron?” Dreamfinder asked.

“That’s my worst fear.” Alex admitted. “….Ooooooooh no. IDIOT! What was I thinking?”

“What?” Figment asked with worriment.

“I just sent my only brother to the belly of the beast!”

“Not just Ron, Rachel too!” Dreamfinder pointed out.

“That’s not good.” Figment said.

“I’m going back!”

“Dreamfinder, wait.” Alex reaches his arm across Dreamfinder. “If you go back to the city by yourself, you’re going to be captured by Crizwalke quicker than you can even take your first step back there.”

“It’s worth the risk to save her. You would do the same for Ron, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I would. But I’m not entirely worried right now. Ron may be a paranoid caution alerter, but he’s also tough. Whatever stands in his way, he’s willing to toughen it out.”

“Didn’t you just say you’d be worried about the possibilities of what Crizwalke would do to Ron or any of your friends if they got caught?” Figment reminded.

“Yeah but—” Alex paused.

“Well?” Dreamfinder interrupted.

“Well…I suppose we check on them before we get all spazzy and run in circles.”

Alex took out his wristwatch that is strapped onto his right wrist. He taps onto the contacts list for him to talk to Ron. The watch is ringing for a connection, leaving all three of Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex in hoping of contacting Rachel and Ron and seeing if they are okay. But the connection is being disturbed for another contact is trying to call Alex. It was none other than Ron’s wristwatch. This means trouble.

********************************************************************************************************

“So you just switched clothes so you two could trick me.” Crizwalke asked.

“Took you long enough to figure that out, genius?” Rachel said.

“You’ve got some character, don’t you little lady?”

“First of all, don’t call me ‘little lady.’ It both insults me as a person and a woman and it exposes you of being not just a jerk, but also a big pervert. And second, if you think that your so-called compliment is going to convince me to tell you where Dreamfinder is, then I believe your time is not the only thing that’s being wasted right now.”

“Did you two even think of how you’re going to stop me from doing what I do for this city? I’ll bet that Alex kid just spurted out his plans and pushed you into his little game of chess.”

“You play chess here, too? Huh. And I thought my home world was the only place that plays it.”

“Look Crizwalke.” Ron chimed in. “My brother may have gotten us trapped in his operations, but he does that with his best intentions. You will be overthrown from the office and Iyrilia will return back to what it was ten years ago.”

“Best intentions, huh?” Crizwalke quoted. “So the Katkin’s best intentions were to send his own only brother ahead to play as a shield in the rough zone for him while he goes on to do whatever little sissy-cowardly tactic he could do and frolic in whatever victory or demise that could be entirely your own? That sounds like a family for you.”

“You wouldn’t know what a family is even if you were born with one.”

“Then where is he now?”

“I hate to say this, Ron, but he’s got you there on that department.” said Rachel.

“You’re not helping.” Ron exclaimed.

Rachel shrugs.

“Now let’s see. What should we do to the two of you for being so naughty in leading my officers into a wild goosediga chase?”

“What’s a goosediga?” Rachel whispered to Ron.

“You’ve heard of geese?” Ron replied with a question.

“Yeah?”

“Same thing only twice the size, larger beaks and most of the body is mostly fur instead of feathers.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

“Hmm. N-1354, come in here.” Crizwalke called from the intercom on his desk..

The robot police chief rolls into the office the second Crizwalke called for him. The one thing Crizwalke loves about his robots is that they are efficient.

“You have called for my services, Master Crizwalke?” N-1354 said in his robotic voice.

“Dang! That’s quick.” Rachel exclaimed.

“N-1354, I’m having some trouble getting these two to tell me where this Dreamfinder and Alex Wavers are in the city. Perhaps we can make them a little more…communicative. Grab the girl.”

“What?” Rachel said with her eyes widening.

The robot officer grabs Rachel by the neck and chokes her. She tries to gasp for breath but the robot’s hand pinches her tightly. Rachel then tries to kick N-1354 while also hurting her own two feet. It’s not working. She cannot escape the robot officer’s grip when her life is depending on it. Crizwalke is taking great pleasure in this, watching people other than himself falling and crippling in tortuous pain. There is more up to his sleeve, however.

He turns to Ron and orders, “That’s a wristwatch to contact other people right? Call your brother!”

“Rachel…” Ron watched with horror. “B-but—”

“DO IT!”

Ron quickly takes his watch can calls Alex. His worst fear has come at hand. He knew all along this sort of thing would happen. To see the people they have only just met get caught and harmed by Crizwalke being of his and Alex’s own actions. Ron had warned Alex not to do this, but Alex would not listen. Now Ron is calling for help on Rachel’s behalf. Things have just got turned ugly.

********************************************************************************************************

Alex answers his wristwatch and Ron’s face appears. To Dreamfinder and Figment, it’s like a magic mirror on the wall, but on a watch. The look on Ron’s face looks obvious enough for Alex and his friends to tell that something is wrong over at Crizwalke’s office. Whatever it is, Alex begins to wish he had approached all this a lot more differently.

“Alex?” Ron said in static.

“Ron, what’s going on?” Alex replied. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Sort of. Is Dreamfinder still with you?”

“Yeah, he’s right here. Why?”

“Ron what’s going on over there?” Dreamfinder asked with concern in his tone. “Is Rachel alright?”

“Uhhhh…” Ron began to sweat and shed tears. And then he squeaked, “No.”

Ron’s wristwatch has then been highjacked off his wrist and is now filming a new face: Crizwalke’s face. This shocks the three of them. They figured Rachel and Ron would get into trouble once they were caught. They did not expect to be talking to Crizwalke himself.

“Would that happen to answer your question, Alex Wavers?” Crizwalke smirked.

“Crizwalke…” Alex found.

“So I finally get to see your face for the first time. You look a lot younger than I expected. How old are you?”

“What have you done with Ron and Rachel?”

“I’d love to answer all your questions in a little bit. Just put your ‘Dreamfinder’ friend on the line and we’ll talk seriously.”

Alex signals his head to Dreamfinder urging him to come forward and present himself to Crizwalke. Dreamfinder stepped up to the wristwatch and sees Crizwalke’s face for the first time.

“Crizwalke? This is Dreamfinder.” Dreamfinder said.

“Dreamfinder! There’s the face I wanted to see.” Crizwalke smiled while smoking his cigar. “How are you?”

“Where is Rachel? What have you done to her?”

“So serious. And here I heard you are supposed to be one of those good ol’, devil-may-care, jolly kind of people.”

“Where is she?!”

“If you must know, she’s right here.” Crizwalke aims the wristwatch’s screen toward Rachel, who is still being held captive to Officer N-1354. He says, “Clever of you to disguise your girl to look like yourself and lead me off your trail. Which reminds me, didn’t she just have longer hair than it being this short?”

“Rachel! Let her go!” Dreamfinder yells.

“First you tell me a little about yourself. Seeing as how you’ve fallen from the sky with your large balloon, since I’ve got eyes all over the city and outside of it, I’m sure you must know a thing or two about building aircraft or traveling throughout the world. Am I wrong?”

“…I’m an inventor.”

“An inventor! Really? Do tell. What have you invented?”

“I can’t tell you. Considering your reputation in your line of work, your crookedness could be the wrong kind of hands to handle what my inventions were capable of. The last thing I want is for this city to continue living in pain by your hand.”

“I see. N-1354?”

********************************************************************************************************

Crizwalke motions his head to the robot officer. The robot understands what Crizwalke is telling him to do. With Rachel still in its grip by the neck the robot rolls over to the glass wall behind the desk where most of the view of Iyra City is seen. It then extends its arm out pushing Rachel against the glass. The glass breaks and Rachel’s body is hanging in midair with her head over the robot’s claw. Her eyes inched at the corner of her eyelids. She watches the shattered glass falling ninety-seven stories down below. The glass breaks like meteorites as they land onto the concrete ground at the Iyrilian Tower’s main entrance, attracting locals both man and anthropomorphic animal alike, to the event that is happening. When they see Rachel dangling at the top of the tower helplessly, many of them become terrified. Some people screamed, others have cupped their mouths and pointed upwards, police officers and ambulances and news reporters come pouring and flooding into the scene, it is like mass hysteria in one street made by the man they hate most.

********************************************************************************************************

The governor turns back to Ron’s wristwatch where Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex’s faces are still in view. He sees the terrified expressions in their eyes and grinds his teeth, breaking through the tobacco pulp paper of his cigar.

“I’ll make you a deal, Dreamfinder.” Crizwalke growled. “Tell me the secrets of your most powerful invention ever created and I’ll set the girl free.”

“You monster!” Figment screamed.

“Says the pet of his own master. I’m impressed that it even talks, too.”

“Figment is not my pet, he’s my best friend!” Dreamfinder yells, “Set Rachel free this instant!”

“You either tell me the secrets of your success or you can watch your friend plummeting to the ground from over a thousand feet. It’s your choice.”

Would Dreamfinder tell his secret for the girl he cares about? Could he really bear to watch Rachel fall to her doom? He agrees with Figment on one thing: Crizwalke is a monster. He can only imagine how many people have been tortuously murdered this way under Crizwalke’s orders. This man is no governor. He is a dictator. A terrorist to his people! As Dreamfinder said before, he’s not one into listening to authority. But what choice does he have now? There is no other way to prevent this cause.

“Imagination.” Dreamfinder sighed.

“What?” Crizwalke said dumbfounded.

“Imagination is my secret. The invention I built some time ago was once able to harness the power of imagination. I used it to help others when I first succeeded in testing it. I even used it to create Figment here, my best imaginary friend, the first time I used it. And then I opened a portal shortly afterwards that lead into the realms of my own imagination. With my invention, Figment and I were able to save our hometown from an army of robots like yours that threatened to destroy it with ‘perfect order’ as they preferred to call it. With imagination, I—uh, we can do anything to help make the world a better place. Henceforth, this energy that comes from our imagination is considered to be dream power.”

“Such a fascinating story. Where is it now?”

“Don’t you tell him, Mr. Dreamfinder!” Ron yelled in the background. “He’ll use it for evil!”

“Shut up, fur ball!” Crizwalke barked as he slapped Ron in the face.

“HEY! You leave my brother alone!” Alex cried.

“Where is your invention?”

“I…I had to destroy it.” Dreamfinder said. “In a series of events that nearly put the world into great chaos and considering that my invention was clearly unstable to contain it, I’ve come to learn that imagination works really best when it’s set free.”

“I see.” Crizwalke sighed.

“There. I told you my secret. Now will you please let Rachel go?”

“With this sort of information, I could harness my own mind to gain and conquer all I desire…” the governor mumbled to himself. “Hmmm….”

There was a silence in the air. Dreamfinder had done what he has been asked to do. Now Crizwalke has to hold his end of the bargain and release Rachel. But will he really do that? Crizwalke puffed and smoked through his chewed up cigar and formed a crooked smiled.

He chuckled grimly and said, “N-1354…drop her.

Doing as he is told, the robot officer releases Rachel, but not in the way her friends had hoped it would do. Giving off a blood-curdling scream, Rachel is now plunging down through the air with no aid to save her. The crowd down below all scream at the horrific sight of a single life falling from over a thousand feet above them. Crizwalke has broken his promise.

“RACHEL!” Figment screamed.

“NO!” Dreamfinder cried.

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel falls faster and faster down below. Her screams pitched higher and higher as her lungs begin to die out. And then she faints. Her voice gives out unable to scream one last cry for help. Her mind, however, is still slowly operating. Deep inside she knows what is to become of her. She will continue falling until whichever part of her body breaks into the ground first and loses her life completely.

But just as she is about to give up hope, she hears a feint voice again. The same voice that spoke to her in her room when she and her friends came to Iyrilia has returned back into Rachel’s consciousness. It hums and sings in a gorgeous high-pitched song that seems to calm the girl’s trace of panic.

 

Fear not, dear Rachel…help is coming to you this second. You will be safe now… 

 

At that moment, Rachel has completely lost consciousness.

Back at the center of Iyra City, the statue of the guardian-like winged Katkin stood at the top of giant white pillar that is seen by all who live within the city. Up close, the golden statue looks as stone cold as it is lifeless. At the palm of its hand swirled a yin-yang-like swirl of fire and water, as it must be its elements that helped create this realm and is praised for. To the people of this world, it is like the Iyrilian version of America’s Statue of Liberty. Not once has the statue moved anywhere since it was first built upon the pillar.

The sound of Rachel’s screams can be heard halfway through the city. However, the sounds of screams from Rachel’s mind has vibrated and rung throughout all of Iyrilia. The people of Iyrilia are unaware of this certain cry for help…except for one being.

The crying has rung into the ears of the statue to be heard. It echoes inside its hollow interior to the point of bouncing its sound waves into faintness. When the silence took over, something happens in an instant. The gold in the statue begins to vibrate itself. Then it starts shaking vigorously. The arms and the hands of the Katkin are moving now. And now the legs begin to stretch. It’s tail twitched and curled as it awoke from it numbing sleep. Now all that’s left is to hear and see where the girl’s screams are coming from.

 

The Katkin’s eyes open in a glowing yellow light, burning bright like the sun.

 

From a far distance, it sees Rachel falling and screaming until she stops sounding. The live statue, now glowing in a bright light all over its body, flies to Rachel’s rescue in a fast pace with its large wings. As it does, the people below him watches it go with bugged and widened eyes. They have never seen anything like it before. When the Katkin reaches the Iyrilian Tower, it sweeps over the people standing at its entrance and soars higher up the building where Rachel is coming down. Finally, the Katkin catches Rachel and safely tucks her in its cradling arms. The people below cheer for its rescue as the being flies higher and higher up to the top floor of the tower. 

********************************************************************************************************

“You promised!” Alex hollered back at Crizwalke in the secret tunnels.

“Oh come now, Alex. You of all people should know better that I never keep my word.” Crizwalke grinned. “Promises are for pansies. Come on! It’s not like you had any feelings for the girl anyway, right?”

“You…you…YOU SON OF A—” Dreamfinder screamed in tears.

“Ah, ah, ah, temper and language ol’ boy. I had figured you would insult someone in a more gentleman-like manner.”

“How could you?”

“I could do it so easily. I’ve been doing it for ten years now. Besides, I got half of what I want. And if you don’t come back to the tower and rebuild this invention of yours for me, the Katkin boy falls, too.”

“Don’t you dare touch him!” Alex shouts.

“Yeah, what has anyone done to you to make you treat them this way?” Figment asked angrily.

“Tick tock, Mr. Dreamfinder.” Crizwalke taunted. “It’s your inventions or—”

Crizwalke could not finish his sentence. A loud roar and a blowing of papers and leftover shattered glass from the window have interrupted his meeting. When Crizwalke turns around with the wristwatch’s screen aimed at what he’s seeing, he sees the winged Katkin flapping its wings in front of him and his staff.

With widened eyes, Crizwalke whispers, “The guardian of all people…”

********************************************************************************************************

“Whoa!” Figment exclaimed.

“Uh…Alex?” Dreamfinder whimpered uneasily. “What do you call that thing?”

“Álvaro…” Alex gasped.


	16. Chapter 16

The once frozen statue of Iyrilia flaps its wings at the broken wall of office of Governor Crizwalke himself. Its eyes are fixed onto Crizwalke as the governor tries to shield its eyes from the brimming light. Ron sees the winged Katkin. He was speechless. The “defender of all people,” as Crizwalke called it, is finally awake after all these years.

The flying Katkin watches the terrified staff of the Iyrilian Tower with anger; more directly at Crizwalke. The attempt to murder a girl he had only just met by dropping her off the top of the tower is nothing but unethical and dishonest. It gives out a loud roar-like cry at Crizwalke with a great anguishing madness. The sound waves of that cry picked up again, ringing in the ears of the Crizwalke staff until their ears began to bleed a little. The only person who is not affected as much is Ron Wavers. Being a Katkin himself, that same high piercing is like listening to a violin squeak and Ron is used to that considering he likes listening to classical music.

While Crizwalke was too busy covering his ears from the winged Katkin’s roar, Ron runs up and snatches back his wristwatch. Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex are still on the line. Dreamfinder and Figment both backed away from Alex’s wristwatch trying to plug their ears from the high pitch screeching.

Finally, it stopped. The winged Katkin ceases it roaring when he hears the sound on feint grunting. It looks down at Rachel in sympathy. The girl’s face clenched from the tortuous sounds of her savior’s cry. She could not lift her arms to protect her ears due to her unconsciousness. The Katkin covers Rachel’s ears and heals them. Carefully safe in its arms Rachel’s head leans over the Katkin’s heart, leaving a warm feeling inside the god-like creature.

The Katkin looks up to the sky where the top of mountain is. And with one great big blow from his wings, the creature flaps high over the tower, far up above Iyra City with Rachel cradled to its body to the top of the mountain.

Ron runs to the edge of the shattered window. He holds up his watch for his brother and friends as the winged Katkin continues to fly higher and higher and higher carrying the paralyzed Rachel with it.

********************************************************************************************************

With widened eyes, Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex stares at the being flying away. They have no idea where that thing came from. As incredible as it looks, none of them can figure out how this thing came to be.

“Whoa!” Figment exclaimed.

“Uh…Alex?” Dreamfinder whimpered uneasily. “What do you call that thing?”

“Álvaro…” Alex gasped.

“Ál-who?” Figment tried to pronounce.

“Álvaro, the defender of all people. He’s come back from his slumber after all these years!”

“And it’s got Rachel, too!” Dreamfinder exclaimed.

“Ron!” Alex called into his wristwatch. “Come in, Ron!”

A couple statics from the watch’s screen buzzed and blurred the vision. Then Ron’s face appeared on the screen.

“Alex, are you there?” Ron’s voice patched through the connection.

“What’s going on over there?”

“Dude! Alex! Did you see that? It was Álvaro!”

“I know! Where’s Rachel?”

“Álvaro has taken her with him. I saw her moaning a little just a moment ago. I think she’s still alive.”

“Oh, thank goodness!” Dreamfinder sighed in relief.

“Whew!” Figment brushed off a sweat from his head.

“Where did they go?” Alex asked.

“They’re heading right to the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain!” Ron replied.

“All the way up there?”

“Afraid so.”

“Alright. We’re on our way back to the city. Get out of the tower and meet us at the gondola lift before Crizwalke catches you again.”

“Oh, I intend to.”

********************************************************************************************************

Ron hangs up his connection on the wristwatch. Around him he sees Crizwalke and his staff on their knees recovering their ears from hearing Álvaro’s scream. This is his only chance of escaping to safety. That is sort of what Ron plans on doing. He takes off his glasses and pushed the staff away from him, creating a path for him to run and jump off the tower!

Making sure he has a clear path, Ron quickly runs right off the edge of the tower where whatever glass was left once stood. The young Katkin falls through a thousand feet of air. Down below him is the crowd of people. Just when they were gaining more breath from the terrifying phenomenon, they begin screaming again for Ron. With Álvaro gone, there’s no way Ron can survive the fall like Rachel did.

But unlike Rachel, Ron is well prepared for falling at this height. Once he was already a quarter away from the top of the Iyrilian Tower, he strips his sweater vest off his torso revealing another vest made with leather. This vest is connected to two custom made wings of cotton fabric and an inverted gull skeleton made with flexible material, plus a double handling grip with a button on each end to make the wings flap made exclusively by Alex Wavers. All set up, Ron activates the buttons and flaps the wings. Just when Ron is about a hundred feet from hitting the ground, he swoops over the crowd of people below him and the crowd cheers again for his safety. Whoever said that cats could not land on their feet?

Ron now makes his way through the cityscape and out of Iyra City awaiting his brother and new friends to arrive at the gondola. On the way, he finds a flowing banner of Crizwalke’s face smiling that hung over half a skyscraper building for Crizwalke current reign in office. The words on the banner said, “Crizwalke Rules All!” It must be made over 30 yards all around. At the tips of each bone on the custom wings are compatible artificial talon claws. As Ron passes by the banner, he twirls himself with his wings shredding it with those claws into giant ribbons. The leftovers fall to ground below with half of Crizwalke’s face.

“FREEDOM!” Ron shouts in protest to the people of Iyra City as he flaps away. “FIGHT BACK IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM, EVERYONE! FREEDOM FOR IYRA CITY! FREEDOM FOR IYRILIA!”

Ron’s shouting brought attention to the crowd below him. They cheer and roar for Ron’s very brief speech. But the cheering didn’t last long. The robot police started coming from all directions to ease the crowd. Of course, the people of Iyra City have always been afraid of facing Crizwalke’s artificial police. But this time is an exception. They are tired of following Crizwalke’s order and hiding in his shadows. Everyone grabs whatever they could find like leftover bricks, clubs, metal objects, etc. and they stand together in one great long line against the police.

Seeing what the people are doing with those objects, the robot police have taken this offense as a threat. They begin charging at the crowd and the crowd started charging at the police. They clash at each other as the sound of cries and clanking tin metal ring though the air that spread throughout the entire city. Ron’s banner shredding has turned into a riot of protest.

********************************************************************************************************

Above the crowd at the top of the tower, Crizwalke regains his strength and watches Ron convincing his city to riot against him. This has both angered and amused him. Mr. Hamm steps forward beside nearly anxious with nerves. The people are going against Crizwalke. And since they know that Hamm is involved with Crizwalke’s schemes, the people would probably decided not to eat at his restaurant anymore.

“This is bad, Crizwalke.” Hamm oinked. “Everyone has gone all-out war against us!”

“And I should be worried about this, why?” Crizwalke said smoking through a new cigar.

“Why? The Wavers Brothers have gotten the people to turn away their trust from us. And the spirit of Álvaro has awoken to take us both out! More people could get hurt!”

“Why worry about the people? The robots will just kill them all off. And those who live will see their brethren fall by my robots and fear me more. Besides, it’s not going to change a thing about me being in office. They can fight all they want and I’ll still be standing.”

“What about the Legend of Álvaro, sir? In fact, how many people have you killed so far? They say that when a certain amount of people killed by one person at least for as long as Álvaro has been sleeping, he’ll—”

“Are you going to bore me with such fantasies, Hammy? The Álvaro is just a myth. It’s not even real.”

“Not real?! Are you blind? We just saw him flying over the office! And it carried that girl off with him, too!”

“Bah! That’s just one of Alex Waver’s crazy inventions brought to life to try to scare me. I’ll admit, I was surprised at the sneak attack. But I’m not easily impressed.”

“Well, impressed or not, I’m outta here! I don’t want that holy Katkin roasting my ham on a spit anytime at all.”

Hamm runs off panting and sweating himself to a brining out of the broken penthouse room. He takes the elevator down to the main lobby where everyone else is evacuating to and leaves the Iyrilian Tower for good.

“Ignominious coward.” Crizwalke grunted. “N-1354!”

“Yes, Master Crizwalke.” N-1354 came in.

“Have your deputies gather as many robots as possible. You and I are going to follow that little troublemaker. And this time, I will destroy them…all.”

********************************************************************************************************

“Come on, guys. Let’s go!” Alex shouted and started running with Dreamfinder and Figment behind him.

“Where are we going?” Figment asked as he flew fast between Alex and Dreamfinder.

“To the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain. It’s the one place he’ll go with Rachel from the tower.”

“But what about the Dream Machine?” Dreamfinder asked. “It’s still in no condition to fly us up there.”

“We don’t need that thing.” Alex said. “We’ll use the gondolas at the outside border of Iyra City. It’ll take us straight up to the top. Hopefully, we’ll find Rachel there as well.”

“Unharmed, I hope.”

“You sound like you really want to marry this girl, don’t you?” 

“Rachel and Dreamfinder sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Figment sang with amusement.

“You hush up, Figment!” Dreamfinder shouted with irritation. “I just don’t want Rachel dead. Is that so much to say?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Alex said.

“Absolutely!” Figment laughed.

“You two are the worst.” Dreamfinder commented. “Why do I talk to you?”

“You talk to us, we talk to you. You really can’t help not talking to each us all the time.”

“Unless you’re a mute.” Alex added.

“That’s true.” Figment admitted.

“Or if you’re ashamed to, or shy to talk, or don’t even exist at all…”

“Right!”

“Focus! Please.” Dreamfinder shouted.

“Sorry.” Alex and Figment together.

********************************************************************************************************

Álvaro ascends with the fainted Rachel to the top of Twisted Peek Mountain. The rock formation around them is like a leftover strip of an apple’s peel. But at the very top the rocks are pointed upwards like the blade of an arrow and covered in a red goop. Around the mountain inside and out, smaller individual boulders are floating by. These are all just amateur obstacles for Álvaro to face. He lands his feet and jumps off each floating boulder he comes across for boost. He flies past them with ease making sure Rachel is safely tucked away and unharmed.

He reaches the top and lands gently onto the thinly formed solid ground. The atmosphere around him is light and sounds so quiet compared to the city below. But why does he feel heaviness inside him? As he can see, the world around him has changed so much. He had been a statue at the center of Iyra City for so long. Now he’s at the top of a mountain holding a strange helpless girl in his arms. But for what reason? He knows the reason.

The winged Katkin walks upwards near the red surface of the mountaintop. He finds a small sheltering spot at the border of the red stuff. With his god-like powers the Katkin then summons nature to fall into his command. Grass begins to grow through the tiny cracks of the ground. It grows into a patch with flowers also growing and blooming at his feet. It’s a pretty small patch, but just big enough to fit at least one person.

Álvaro carefully places Rachel down onto the grassy patch. The flower petals brush against Rachel’s skin. The bristling grass tickles her cheeks. The ground is soft enough to mold Rachel’s figure. She nestled and cooed in her numbness unaware of what is happening around her and back in the city.

Rachel had not been awake since her encounter with Crizwalke. She had now seen what kind of person Crizwalke really is. And she thought her father was bad enough. The girl quivers in both terror and the icy high altitude air biting onto her flesh. That was until a warm gentle hand starts petting her softly. It starts at the arm and then moves up to her head. Her mind is filled with horrific moments that had occurred within the past few days. And then the horrible moments from throughout her lifetime, with the exception of hanging out with her three best friends since high school, Denny, Abby, and Kevin. Oh, how she misses them so much since she had left with Dreamfinder and Figment on this journey through imagination. Her heart is aching with pain she feels the need to cry.

Finally, after seeing more than enough she wakes up from her nightmare, allowing one tear to fall from her eyes. She notices something wrong with the slightly blurred picture in front of her: she’s still alive. How is she still alive? She just fell nearly a hundred stories downward to her doom and somehow survives that. How? Rachel then takes notice of the grass and flowers beside her. It’s so soft and green. Where is this place?

Gaining her energy back, Rachel lifts herself up on the grass patch. She turns around and screams at the sight of Álvaro sit in front of her. Not knowing what else to do Rachel backs away to the wall behind her. Her eyes widened and her breaths were quickening. She catches a lump in her throat. She tries to swallow that lump, but it’s not doing her any good.

“Who are you? Where did you come from? Where am I?” Rachel asked nervously.

Álvaro said nothing. All he did was lift an eyebrow as if he doesn’t speak English like Rachel does. 

“C-Can you even understand me?” she then asked.

Then Álvaro crawled closer to Rachel. Scared to her wits, Rachel tries to back farther towards the wall until she could not take another inch. Her back now slides down from the wall to the grass as it tingled and shook like the shaking of trees in a strong wind. She gulps. Álvaro towers over the poor frightened girl. His shadow envelops Rachel’s entire body. Frightened beyond imagination, Rachel feels the need to scream again. But instead of screaming, she turns her head away and whimpers. The whimpering reduced as Álvaro continued to cuddle her cheek. He turned Rachel’s head back to face him and noticed some tears forming up in her eyes. He gently dries them. Then Rachel watches his hand gently tracing to the ends of her freshly cut short hair. Álvaro’s hand begins to glow in a light blue haze. He steadily pulls her hair making new hair grow longer and longer until the newly formed hair reaches the exact length Rachel had it previously. Rachel’s hair is now long again.

He even holds onto Rachel’s neck tenderly noticing the bruising scab from being held and tightly clutched by Officer N-1354. Again, his hand glowed that light blue haze and healed away the scars, blood and scrapes on her flesh. Her neck is now back to normal.

Surprised, Rachel felt her hair and came to the conclusion that her long hair is back and that Álvaro means no harm to her. She looks into his glowing yellow eyes, not minding how bright they are to blind her own. They glisten and shine like the sun bringing her a kind warmth to her flesh. It’s a wonder how Rachel is not affected by its light to the point of blinding her. In those eyes, she finds a softness in them, softer than the Katkin fur on his body or even a tickle that would be felt by one of the feathers on his wings.

To prove that softness, Álvaro spots a flower in the patch. He tenderly plucks it from the ground and sticks it into Rachel’s hair on her head. He touches her cheek again and smiles. Rachel begins to blush. She understands how sweet this being is now underneath his external harshness of a body. His heart must be larger and kinder than a cold life size boulder. The girl smiles back at Álvaro and then feels his furry face in gratitude. In her mind, this is like a Beauty and the Beast moment without any anger issues.

“What’s your name?” Rachel asked calmly as she slowly sits back up against the wall.

Instead of answering her question, Álvaro leans over Rachel as if forcing her back to the wall to her surprise.

“Whoa! Okay, what are you do—” Rachel could finish her second question when Álvaro starts sitting on top of her and feeling her cheeks again. “Uh…okay. Listen. I don’t know what your doing, but I’m beginning to feel very uncomfortable about it and—” Then Álvaro quickly places his finger over Rachel’s lips and shakes his head as if disagreeing.

The winged Katkin cups Rachel’s head and airily presses her forehead against his. He closes his eyes mildly. A vibration is now throbbing through his body, mind and soul murmuring through his voice very gingerly. He’s purring. Álvaro is purring on Rachel’s forehead. She knew that Álvaro, Alex and Ron are all Katkins alike and that their species relates to the cat category, but she did not expect to see much cat-like mannerisms going on at this moment. The purring actually feels kind of nice, Rachel thought to herself. It almost tickles her enough to giggle. The purring continues to vibrate, digging deeper and deeper into Rachel’s mind. She can hear voices coming from those vibrations. This purring must be the Katkin’s way of using mental telepathy, Rachel figured out. Soon the voices came out much more clear until Rachel could finally understand what its saying.

And then Álvaro begins to show his own imagination in her mind.

********************************************************************************************************

After running through underground tunnels, Dreamfinder, Alex and Figment all climb out back into the city where Álvaro’s once stood at the traffic circle. When they got out, they noticed something very mush out of balance here. Everyone around them in the city are fighting against the robot police! Every man, woman and child of all races in Iyra City are involved in this great battle. Buildings and parks are burning to a crisp. Glass and windows and lampposts are breaking into tiny shattered pieces by the minute. It’s chaos!

“What in the-” Dreamfinder could not finish his sentence. He is much too awed by the looks of things here.

“Was this happening while we were underground?” Figment asked out loud.

“Hey you! Crocodile guy! Come here!” Alex shouted ahead to an anthropomorphic male crocodile. The crocodile responded and ran up to Alex and his friends while also clearing his path of beat up robots. Then Alex asks, “What’s going on here?”

“Yo, didn’t you hear man?” the crocodile yelled, “Some Katkin guys with wings, like really real wings, rescued this girl from falling and flew up to the top of the mountain. And then this other Katkin jumped off the top of the Iyrilian Tower and spreads out wings of his own and he starts clawing and twirling and totally shredding and ripping this Crizwalke banner to pieces shouting ‘FREEDOM TO IYRILIA!’ And now everyone in town is fightin’ off these bad robo dudes like they weres nothin’!”

“That’s my brother Ron alright!” Alex smirked. “Only he would know how to start a scene just right.”

“Yo, that was your brother? Bless him, man!”

“Hey look!” Figment pointed up to the top of the giant pillar.

Álvaro’s statue once stood on the top of the pillar. But now it’s gone. It’s gone off to save Rachel from closing into great peril.

“Hey! Where’s the Álvaro statue?” the crocodile shouted.

“It’s gone!” Figment said. “We just saw him flying over the tower up to the top of the mountain.

“Then the legend is coming true! Like, the dark side of the legend! If someone else dies, we’re all doomed!”

“Doomed?” Dreamfinder quoted. “What do you mean ‘doomed?’”

“I’ll explain in a bit.” Alex said. “Yo Croc! We’re have to get to the gondolas outside of town and save our friend. Think you can help clear a path for us?”

“Dude, I’ll do you better than that.” said the crocodile. “Follow me!”

The crocodile man, or Croc as we shall call him, runs ahead ramming and swinging and banging into every robot police that got in his way with his metal baseball bat and his tail while Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex followed him. It’s become like madness out here in the city. They had only been gone for a couple hours and here they come back to see all this. At least Alex’s vision of fighting and taking back their city from Crizwalke is coming to life. All he needed was people like Ron to start it off.

Croc alone could not possibly be their only defense. So Dreamfinder and his friends gathered up some heavy weapons to defend themselves. Alex got a crow bar. Figment got a wooden club. And Dreamfinder grabbed a sledgehammer as well as some screwdrivers and a wrench he had saved some time before as extras. They all charge through the crowds of battle slamming their armory onto every robot police they face. And each time they did, more and more robots keep coming in.

“Gee, this is fun!” Figment shouted with a smile. “We should have done this to those tin guys when we saved London a long time ago!”

“Whew! You’re telling me! I’m already breaking a sweat fighting against these tin heads!” Dreamfinder exclaimed. “How much farther is the city border?”

“It’s not too far ahead.” said Croc. “If we keep going without anymore of those tin dudes coming our way, we should be there in about ten minutes by running.”

“Then let’s move!”

The four friends dash forward toward the city limits. A few robot police spot Dreamfinder and Alex running and fighting against the other robot officers. They start rolling after them on their wheels for feet. They speed past other robots and citizens battling each other to a clearing. The robots put themselves on full throttle and race right behind their alleged victims. Just as the robot police could grab either Dreamfinder or Alex’s shirt collars, a slicing from the air completely shredded those robots to strips.

Dreamfinder, Alex, Figment and Croc looked behind them to see what was happening behind. Ron appeared to him flying over his slivered robot saps and went ahead of his batch of friends. They all follow Ron straight to the city border and away from the great brawling mob. There were not many blows or filth taken gains being taken by group. Ron got dirty from flying through the ashes the fires burned off the building. Figment’s hands got a little chapped from holding onto his crow bar to hard. Croc obtained a few bruises from whacking some of the tougher robots with his tail and cut on his snout. Same with Alex only the cuts are located on his arms and some on his tail. Dreamfinder probably has the worst. He got ashes covering his white shirt and bowtie, plus a couple bruises on his face and arms, his beard has gotten a little singed and the glass on his goggles are cracked. To go through all that for Rachel’s sake is worth it.

They finally make out of the city alive. To their left, Alex and Croc spot the gondola lift hut labeled “Gondola Wind” like it was pronounce “gone with the wind,” but with gondolas. They run towards the hut where a ticket window is opened and a man sat there, waiting for customers. He looks like he is middle aged. His coarse gray hair and mustache covers the small wrinkles on his face. His eyes drooped with boredom with his feet sitting on the table inside as he dosed of into a boring slumber. But that was until Figment flew straight at him like a dart and scared the man out of his sleep.

“Hi!” Figment shouted.

“Agh!” The ticket man exclaimed. “What is this?”

“I’m the Figment of Imagination! You can call me ‘Figment’ for short.”

“A what?”

“Sir, we need to use your gondola lift.” said Dreamfinder who just caught up to his flying friend.

“Use it?” the man’s eyes perked up. “Where are you heading?”

“To the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain.” said Alex as he, Ron and Croc came last.

“The top of the mountain? No one’s ever gone up there in a long while. You tourists around here?”

“No! Listen, one of our friends is already up there. She was taken by Álvaro!”

“Álvaro? Ain’t no way he’s been alive after a fifty-millennium slumber. You’re all pulling my leg.”

“No sir, we all saw him!” Ron exclaimed.

“It was totally weird! No—more than weird!” Croc chimed in. “He saved this girl from falling down Crizwalke’s tower completely out of nowhere and split!”

“Please. We need to get up there now!” Dreamfinder yelled.

“Alright, alright! Slow yourselves down. Because it’s ‘Sight-Seeing Saturday,’ a maximum party of four can use the lift for free admission.”

“But there’s only five of us.” Figment counted.

“Well then one of you ought to stay here and wait for the next one to come by.” said the ticket man.

“So who’s going to stay?” Ron asked.

“It’s obvious Figment and I have to go.” said Dreamfinder. “We’re both responsible for Rachel’s well being since we started bringing her with us. We can’t leave without her.”

“Uh, guys?” Croc said.

“I should go, too.” Alex said. “I got her into this mess and I’m the one who needs to get her out of it.”

“Guys?”

“You four can use the gondola and I’ll use the custom wings.” Ron suggested.

“But your wings are nearly busted, Ron.” said Alex. “I’ve already risked your neck badly enough.”

“Guys?” Croc started tapping onto Figment and Ron’s shoulders.

“I wish we had the Dream Machine with us.” Dreamfinder said. “We’d get us all up there much quicker.”

“Well, who’s fault was it when it fell from the sky?” Alex yelled.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who pushed myself off the side of the airship!”

“DUDES!” Croc shouted.

“WHAT?” everyone else said altogether.

“Crizwalke at high noon!”

The group turns their attention to the two persons standing over a hundred feet away from them. Governor Crizwalke and Officer N-1354 are both glaring at their prey. The group has gone through a lot of trouble to get the city to riot against Crizwalke and everything he’s accomplished to stay in power. They did not like the looks of this picture. Both Crizwalke and N-1354 start walking toward Dreamfinder and his friends bringing much spine tingling and nerve-racking suspense to their spines.

“Oh dear, this is so not good!” Ron said.

“You guys go.” Croc said. “I’ll hold them off.”

“What?” everyone said.

“It’s about time someone has taken a step forward for our rights. Don’t worry. I’ve studied martial arts on my spare time. I can whip some tail end really good and leave’ em bad.” Croc holds a thumb up for the group, assuring them he’s got everything under control.

“Alright.” Alex confirmed. “Good luck, bro.”

“Thanks. Now go save yo’ girl! These bad dudes are mine. And tell Álvaro I said ‘hey!’”

Alex gathers everyone together at the ticket hut for free admission at the gondola lift. Their tickets are printed and stamped and ready to go. They each inserted their tickets into the slip located on the turnstiles confirming their admittance to enter. The man activates the switches and levers for the gondola to work. Finally, the lift is moving the gondola with Dreamfinder, Figment, Ron and Alex in side leaving Croc to deal with the governor.

“Come and get me, old man.” Croc said to himself.

With Croc staying behind to keep Crizwalke and N-1354 busy, the fearsome foursome are on their way to the top of the mountain where Rachel is waiting to be rescued. It’s marked as Dreamfinder’s priority No.1 to save this girl from whatever harm may come his way.


	17. Chapter 17

The images from Álvaro’s mind begin to appear in Rachel’s. He dives his way into her consciousness purring to her for her comfort and for her cooperation. Rachel tries to restrain herself at the beginning, but this soothing sibilation has mesmerized the girl’s imagination enchanting her with his mollifying song. Being a cat owner once herself back in California, she thought the soft purring of her cat sitting on her lap was enough to give in to the point of continuous pettings. Álvaro’s purring, however, has taken away her senses effortlessly. As if hypnotized, Rachel’s has fallen under Álvaro’s droning spell.

In the midst of her mind, Rachel has found herself at Álvaro’s mercy. The atmosphere is a harvest gold mist and streaks of white and coffee colored clouds with no floor, ceiling or wall. The only thing touching her is Álvaro holding onto her arms. He stares are her lightly, yet fondly. But underneath his exterior, his eyes can see through Rachel’s. Álvaro can see through Rachel’s eyes, her soul, her heart and her expression. And yet, he does not feel the need to do so. Why? He has his reasons.

Pressing his forehead onto Rachel’s forehead, he finally begins to communicate.

“I am Álvaro,” he said, “guardian and defender of the people of Iyrilia. For 50,000 years, I have slept under a curse cast upon me by mere mortal with evil in his heart. You have so graciously awoken me from my cursed slumber and now I am free to live in the world of Iyrilia with my again. For that I am forever grateful and forever at your service.”

“…Hey.” Rachel smiled awkwardly with her hand raised halfway up. 

Álvaro searches his eyes on Rachel’s appearance carefully. Of all the humans he has seen and known, somehow Rachel seems to catch his interest. He notices the way Rachel is dressed: a suit, dress suit and pants. It is unlike anything he’s seen a woman of all kinds dress like. The girl’s scent reached the winged Katkin’s sinuses. He sniffed that scent all over her from her hair, her neck and around her back. Rachel tenses up as Álvaro flies around her trying to keep a straight face from whimpering in a slight fear.

“Hmm…you are mighty peculiar to be one of my children.” said Álvaro with an eyebrow raised up. “Are thou Iyrilian?”

“Uh…no. No, I’m not.” Rachel replied. “I’m uh…an Earthling.”

“ ‘Earth-ling?’ Like of the Seven Realms of the Lios Calbedaea? Or perhaps of the Oria Asteroids?”

“Uh…no, just Earth. Nothing else special about the name other than it being what me and my people walk upon.”

Álvaro looks upon the girl again. This time, he firmly takes hold of her chin and turns her head from side to side to get a better look at her.

“Are all the Earthlings of your land as beautiful as you are?” Álvaro said as he felt Rachel’s cheek in the process.

Rachel giggles, turning her head away in her blushing at Álvaro’s words and says, “Well, it really depends on where you want to see that beauty. There’s physical beauty and emotional beauty. But really, I guess you can say that like your people we are all beautiful in our own way.”

“Very well said.”

“Thank you.”

“What of your people? Are they like mine of both animal and human?”

“A majority of the intelligent life on earth are humans. As far as I’m concerned, the humans here are pretty much living the same kind of atmosphere as my people are. The animals, however…well, I guess the only animal that talks is a parrot.”

“Are you their princess? Their queen? Or perhaps their goddess?”

“Neither of them. Just human. Though the Earth doesn't have an absolute ruler, there are some countries that are ruled by kings and queens. Gods and goddesses, well...There is really only one living god according to the religion I praise. All the rest of them are just made up in ancient times to make their rulers look and feel superior than everyone else, which in my defense just sounds silly.”

“What is your name?”

“Rachel.”

“Rachel. That is a lovely name.”

“Again, thank you.”

“Are you alone in my realm?”

“No, I’m here with my acquaintances, Dreamfinder and Figment.”

“Acquaintances?”

“I just met them not too long ago. About a week, I suppose. It takes a while for people to gain my trust before becoming my friends.”

“And I presume they are not Iyrilians either.”

“No, they’re not. All three of us are Earthlings…from Earth.” 

“Most peculiar. Fascinating, but peculiar.”

“Now uh…Álvaro, is it? Why am I here? What is this place?”

“You stand in the presence of what this land once was in the days of my own lifetime projected into your mind’s eye.” said Álvaro. “This is where my story had taken place in days so long past. You must listen to everything I shall tell you. In return, you must tell me what you have come to know has happened during my absence. Perhaps, if whatever situation is dire, we may help each other.”

“Of course.” Rachel agreed.

Commanded by Rachel’s agreement, the atmosphere around the pair begins to change form. Instead of what was at first an abstract concept of Álvaro’s mind, a tangible environment takes shape in the form of nature. The colors, however, do not change much. The way this nature scene sprouts out from the newly formed ground appears to come alive in black-lined images with these harvest gold and coffee colors as if they are made of ink and printed in old paper sewn together into classically formed books handed down from the nineteenth to twentieth century libraries and book stores. To Rachel, it is like jumping into the pages of one of those classic stories ready to experience what the story will tell her. For Álvaro, it is exactly just that.

“Good. Let’s begin.”

********************************************************************************************************

Swirling up above from the surface ground and away from Crizwalke and Officer N-1354’s presence, Dreamfinder, Figment, Alex and Ron are gathered together in the gondola car and are on their way to save their friend as they sail on the outskirts of the Twisted Peek Mountain by a cable line. As the car reaches higher and higher, the clouds above them slowly inch closer and closer downward blanketing them in their fluffy transparent mist. Along with those clouds, the boulders supported by their anti-gravity physics also float by and through the opened walls of the mountain. 

By now, they are almost halfway up. The gondola lift is an old piece of transportation. The machinery that operates the gondola lift has been used up to and then rusted for so many years. Therefore, the four friends riding inside the cable car are slowly lifting to their destination.

There had once been a time when folks from all over this land would come to lift just to see the spectacular view of the world they live in. Now that Walker Crizwalke is the governor he assumed that even though they would nowhere else to run at the top, the people of Iyrilia would hide away at the mountaintop. So he forced the gondola lift to shut down permanently. However, the gondola had reopened by a secret party without Crizwalke suspecting it until today.

Inside the car, finally able to take a breath or two after battling an entire hoard of robots, the four beings have no choice but to sit still and wait. Alex and Ron sit there in their cushioned seats fiddling away with their wristwatches where they have hacked and programmed an entire library’s worth of information about history of Iyrilia. Figment sits beside Dreamfinder, scratching away old chips of paint deteriorating from the car’s surface. His creator, however, has the expression of panic written in his face. Rachel is up there with that winged creature not knowing whether or not it would likely harm her in any way possible and he let it happen. He listened to Alex’s plan in trying to overthrow the corrupted governor without realizing until later the ideal cost of a friend’s life.

The Dreamfinder plays with his gloves and rubs his hands vigorously. His mind is crammed with terrifying thoughts of what the possible future may come for him and his friends. His sweat drips down from his forehead mingling with whatever small resistant tears reluctantly fall down his cheeks and clash into his beard. And a quickening pace shortens Dreamfinder’s breaths. He has become a nervous wreck. All this seemed very familiar to both him and his imaginary friend, who finally took notice of his creator’s distress.

“You’re doing it again.” Figment points out.

“Doing what?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Worrying too much.”

“Figment, I know we have only just met Rachel for as long as maybe a week ago, but you don’t know what it’s like to fear the worst for the people you care about. Of what terrible possible outcome could happen because of the decisions you make. Even when it concerns the kind of people you’ve only just met.”

“I don’t?”

“Yes.”

“Have you forgotten how I felt for you when the Doubtfinder took over your body back at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus because you were afraid of not fitting in so well in the what is now modern-day time?”

“How could I forget? I never got a chance to see you get afraid for me because I was too busy getting possessed by that big black thing! I guess I can believe you did and know about at this point, but I most certainly didn’t see it.”

“But Dreamfinder, don’t you remember the look on my face just before that happened and right before I saw your eyes glow green by the Doubtfinder’s possession? I was at the verge of crying. In fact, you were crying! I saw!”

“I know what I did!” Dreamfinder shouted. “And I’m sorry for worrying you on that department. But this is a different kind of fear. I’m not fearing for myself, I’m fearing for Rachel! For crying out loud, you saw what had just happened moment ago. She just fell down over a thousand feet from Crizwalke’s tower to her doom, to which I’m most grateful for that winged thing for rescuing her at the very least. Figment, I’m fearing for the well being of the one girl I’ve never imagined myself taking an interest for considering I have never gotten this one chance of embracing a feeling like this throughout the course of my lifetime and career—”

“To a girl you’ve only just met?” Figment shouted back.

 

YES!

 

Dreamfinder grabbed onto Figment’s arms screaming to tears. Then a silence broke out, grabbing the attention of both the Wavers brothers. The sound of Dreamfinder’s voice echoed throughout the open air. His mouth trembles. Figment looks directly into Dreamfinder’s eyes, realizing how serious and sincere his words and expressions are. Though hasn’t had as much experience in things like this as his creator has, he now understands what his friend is going through and sympathizes him for it. 

The purple dragon smiled kindly to Dreamfinder and says, “We’ll save her, Dreamfinder. I know she’s still alive up there.”

“For her sake and for mine…” Dreamfinder panted, letting go of Figment’s arms, “I hope you’re right. I’m sorry for exploding at you.”

“It’s okay. You looked like you needed to let that out.”

“Hey, are you two done with your little soap opera rehearsal?” Alex sarcastically said. “Or do you want to hear about what we’re about to go up against?”

“If it means hearing a good story, I’m all up for it!” Figment smiled.

“So who is this Álvaro person?” Dreamfinder asked.

“Álvaro was once a mortal Katkin who became a leader of all the anthropomorphic animal tribes many years ago.” Ron answered.

********************************************************************************************************

“Many centuries ago, before everything you see in reality has been built,” Álvaro begins telling the story to Rachel, “I was chosen by my father and mother to serve my people as their future chieftain. They had the dream of settling onto a quiet plain where our people could live our lives in peace. We’ve searched far and wide for a place like this, but there was hardly any luck for us to find one. My people, predator and prey alike, have suffered for almost a century at where we once lived. Food had become scarce, water banks were drying up, and all of the nature of trees, bushes and plants were wilting and dying into clouds of dust that flowed along in the harsh winds that constantly froze us to near death. 

We all thought that was only the worst of our problems, but it wasn’t. A hoard of great reptilian beasts, each granted with dark magical powers, threatened to devour us all at any given time. With their magic, they wanted to consume and blanket the world into darkness, greedy for the wealth of treasures my people bore and the plentiful food we would have become. My father, the chief, stepped up in front of the leader of the beasts and fought to his last breath. Unfortunately, his blows were not enough to strike against the large reptiles’ magic. When my father’s strength finally depleted the beasts’ leader snapped its jaws and swallowed him whole.”

********************************************************************************************************

“When the chief died thousands of years ago,” Alex continued for Ron, “Álvaro began holding the responsibility as the new leader of his people. At that time, Álvaro was only a teenager and he was never able to amount the same weight of strength his father once did. So after settling his people to a temporary safe place, Álvaro set out to find ways to defeat the great reptilian beasts and their dark magic. He searched many days and weeks and months across the plains, into the trenches and over hilltops and mountaintops for the answer, but he had no luck as anyone else would have had. One day, he came across a cave at the center of a mountain— one of those snowy mountains over there, actually,” Alex pointed to the snow-tipped mountains far across the other side of the plain below between there and the Twisted Peek Mountain and continued, “where he found an ancient shrine that had been hidden away from the world for centuries.”

********************************************************************************************************

“Inside this cave,” Álvaro continued to Rachel, “I discovered an old abandoned shrine of a great winged lion hero who once lived and brought prosperity to his own people in years long before me. To touch the statue of the shrine with a clean hand is a sign of respect for the idols that had done good deeds for our lands. I washed my hands in a nearby puddle of water that was as clear and blue as sapphires. When I touched the shrine, I felt its energy rushing through my arms and onto my body. I transformed into something far greater than I had once expected of myself. The lion hero’s spirit flowed into balance with my soul making me the first Katkin of my kind to ever grow my own wings as if I had been chosen to carry on his legacy for world peace. But more importantly, that spirit has made me immortal.”

********************************************************************************************************

“That shrine had given him many great powers as well as giving him his own wings.” Ron continued. “With it, he was able to withstand any form of magic known in our world. Using his new wings, Álvaro flew back to his people just in time to stop the giant reptiles from beginning to devour their feast of innocent animals. The reptiles never stood a chance against Álvaro and Álvaro became the mightiest being in our history. He cast out and destroyed every cruel reptilian beast outside his clan and other forms of monstrosities that threatened to put harm on his people.”

********************************************************************************************************

“While I was fighting against my foes I came across this land here in Iyrilia.” said Álvaro. “The land was lush in green and the mountains were scattered all over the place with boulders littering across the skies. What had really impressed me was this very mountain on which you and I sit upon. Though the peculiar force of air had twisted the mountain, it left enough room for sunlight to shine into the interior and for flying creatures to soar through its boulder fields. Flowers of all kinds would bloom in the spring and snow would fall upon the mountaintops in the winter. And there were many riverbanks and reservoirs, enough to quench the thirst of all persons for all eternity. It was a place of great beauty and life. And even the jagged mountains that form around the mountain serves as a great defense against all my foes. I vowed that once I had taken out every possible danger there, I would claim this land where my people would be safe, forever able to live freely together and be fed daily for all given time.”

********************************************************************************************************

“But not long after Álvaro and the animal people had settled there,” Ron added, “some others folks have come to claim some land for themselves: man. Human man, to be precise. They had not realized this land had already been taken until they had arrived and have seen Álvaro and the animals roaming around in the area. Álvaro was the first to notice the humans setting camp outside the mountain and to greet them the next day. He and the leader of the humans talked for many hours deciding whether the humans could stay or go.”

********************************************************************************************************

“Finally, I came to the agreement that would support us both.” said Álvaro. “Iyrilia became my people’s land first. That was final. But I would allow the humans to settle amongst my people and keep my people from attacking them and running them from the land if the humans did the same for themselves. Otherwise, if any of the humans attacked my people without legitimate reason, all of the humans would be banished from the land and never to return again.”

********************************************************************************************************

“And they agreed.” said Alex. “The humans have kept their word and lived justly with the animal people throughout the centuries. Even the children from both sides have come to love Álvaro very much as did Álvaro in return. He’s always loved children. He considers every one of the newly born animals and the humans his own children. For many years, Álvaro continued to care and protect the animals and humans from whatever dangers creeped into Iyrilia.”

********************************************************************************************************

“I have come to love the humans as if they were all part of my brethren.” Álvaro said with warmth. “I have done all I could do to make them happy and live peacefully together. All things have continued tranquilly as ever…until one day a dark omen had come upon me.”

********************************************************************************************************

“One of the humans, Jean Vonerok, had plotted to take over both the animal and the human clans.” Ron stated. “He was an evil person filled with darkness in his heart. Somehow he found the magic that the giant reptiles Álvaro battled once before possessed and used it summon the dead and have them do his bidding. He created an army and assembled a surprise attack upon both tribes. By the end of the week, Vonerok had killed 49,999 people altogether. But he felt that wasn’t enough. He planned that the 50,000th victim he would take down would be—”

********************************************************************************************************

“Me.” Álvaro continued. “I had suffered the loses of many good and innocent people, young and old, from both sides of the human and animal race. On the seventh day of his tyranny, Vonerok snuck into my temple, poured a sleeping death poison in my wine and quietly left the temple as if he was only a ghost who had just come by and gone. I drunk my wine without knowing my drink had been drugged and fainted into a very deep slumber. But before I had closed my eyes for the final time, a younger and loyal Katkin came to me in immense grief. But I told him not worry of me. I told him to write down this prophecy I would bring. ‘In times of great desperate need, I will return and protect my beloved subjects as will my services would be most needed. Or…if there were to be someone whose heart is as dark and black as night who would kill the same amount of people as Vonerok did…”

********************************************************************************************************

“If someone with a dark heart would kill 50,000 people throughout the course of his or her life…” Ron paused.

********************************************************************************************************

“All the of the leftover blood built upon the top of the mountain by the wasted bodies in bloodshed will rain over the land of Iyrilia and destroy all it touches, bringing the end of our civilization.” Ron and Álvaro both said at the same time in separate areas.

********************************************************************************************************

“And now it looks like it may actually happen!” Ron concluded.

“Because of Crizwalke…” Dreamfinder gasped. “He must have killed all those 49,999 people throughout his career as the governor…and that means Rachel—”

“Would have been victim No. 50,000!” Figment finished.

“Exactly.” Ron sighed with dread.

“Poor Álvaro…and poor Rachel, too.”

“But since Álvaro somehow came out at victim 49,999 and rescued Rachel at the tower from being the 50,000th,” Alex points out, “there is still a chance we take out Crizwalke once and for all and save Rachel and our home from total destruction.”

“Then we can say that since Álvaro is a good god, Rachel is currently far from any danger, right?” Figment asked on behalf of Dreamfinder.

“At the moment, yes.” said Ron. “Plus, if Álvaro agrees to help us save the city, and he will, he will bring an end to the era of Crizwalke's corruption and begin a new era of peace to Iyrilia once again.”

“Sweet!” Figment cheered. “Hey look, Dreamfinder! There’s you hat!

“My hat? Where?” Dreamfinder perks his head out of the car and watches closely for his hat’s location.

“Up there on that cliff!”

“Can you go get it for me? That hat is one of kind.”

“Roger!” Figment flies out to grab to get the hat.

“Rachel must have dropped it during the flight up the mountain.” said Alex.

“If that’s the case, we must be getting close to the top.” Ron assumes.

As Figment flies out of the car, the three friends wait patiently for the young dragon’s return. He retrieves Dreamfinder’s hat in his hands making sure there isn’t a scratch or a loose thread on it. But just as Figment is about to fly back to the car, he spots something horrific to his eyes: Crizwalke and N-1354 are flying up right behind them! The robot officer is carrying Governor Crizwalke in its arms and is using jet boosters to fly through the sky. This is SO not good! Faster than his two tiny wings would fly, Figment immediately rockets back to the cable car clutching the hat in his arms. When he gets in, he hides at the far corner of his seat clenched in fear.

“Guys!” Figment screams in terror. “It’s Crizwalke and that robot thing! It’s flying right behind us!”

“What?” Dreamfinder shouted. He turns his head behind him along with Alex and Ron rushing toward the backside of the car only to find that what Figment has said is true. “Oh, come now!”

********************************************************************************************************

“The prophecies were my last words spoken in my life.” Álvaro grieved. “With that being said, my eyes closed to my slumber and my soul had been consumed by the dark veil that buried me and sang such feint and tortuously grieving lullabies, never able to see nor way of knowing when I would ever see the light of day again and feel the comforting warmth run through my fur, flesh and blood. The darkness had then turned my body into the golden statue of which I am sure you may have seen in reality. In more ways than one, I wished I had never prophesized that second omen. I never wanted to bring havoc to a majority of the people I have oh so loved throughout my lifetime. To watch them suffer in an ocean of wasted blood and to refuge on an island of dead torsos for as long as I have been asleep in the cold golden shell of a statue. That was the last thing I remember of the world I had once lived before this moment without animation. In my slumber, I have awaited for day and searched for a solution that would bring me to life and spread the regaining warmth in my heart to people who deserves it most. I am not sure how long I have been asleep nor do I know what changes have occurred since I have been gone, but when I woke up it was because something else had alarmed me of the 50,000th scream of the alleged 50,000th victim falling into the brink of death. A loophole opened for me and I have awoken at last to rescue you and bring you to a great comforting embrace if you have so wishfully desired.” As Álvaro finished story, Rachel’s head looks up to see a very concerned Álvaro. He pats his hand onto Rachel’s head like he would do to a pet and says, “Tell me, Rachel…who is responsible for these pointless deaths onto the lives that have been pointlessly wasted, the attempt of ending your span of life, and the chaos that is rallying my people into a civil war between flesh and machine?”

Rachel looks deeply into Álvaro’s eyes seeing that he and his sad story is very much serious. She watches him tremble and his teeth clenching tightly in anger and grief. His people have constantly been slaughtered in his absence. It is giving Rachel much pain to see her new friend feel this way, especially in front of her. She has no choice but to give him a straight answer.

“This man named Walker Crizwalke. I have heard from a local that for the past ten years of his career as Iyra City’s governor he has been greedily torturing the people for the wealth of money and power. He is the one who had his robot drop me from the top of the tower where his office is, to which I’m grateful for you to have come and save me.”

Petting Rachel’s head so more, Álvaro states, “I swear to you, my dear Rachel. I will put an end to this madness and restore my land so you may safely walk upon it without fear. In fact, my dearest, I have an offer for you.”

Álvaro then opens his eyes. They glowed brightly to fill the atmosphere of Rachel’s mind I that lighting. Rachel then opens her eyes to the same glow coming out from her. Álvaro’s telepathy spell has been broken and they find themselves back on the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain where Álvaro is still sitting on top of Rachel who sat on the soft grassy patch. 

He kisses her on her forehead, holds onto Rachel’s body close to his and holds her chin up softly and asks, “Once I stop this Crizwalke person from causing any more trouble for you and my people, will you stay with me in Iyrilia forever and be my queen?”

“Uh…” Rachel blushes and giggles “I’m…I’m honored and flattered by your proposal, Álvaro. You really are very kind and gentle to me and very loyal considering you’ve rescued me and that you are more than willing to protect me and everyone here from all harm. If I had the time and place to do it and nothing else going on in my life, I would marry you. But my place isn’t here. It’s with Dreamfinder and Figment, the acquaintances I just told you about. We’re on a mission to find this giant sphere that has been appearing and disappearing from our world and apparently doing the same in other realms. You wouldn’t by any chance have seen one like that before and after your slumber, wouldn’t you?”

“Hmm…it does strike a familiarity to my memory. A giant sphere…would it happen to have tiny triangles that makes more triangles into a giant white circle with legs?”

“Yes, that’s it! Have you seen it?”

“Not in a long time. The day I first came here I saw it sitting it behind the spiraling hill all the way over there. I must say it is rather impressive how it has remained here for so many centuries.”

Álvaro lifts himself off the ground carrying Rachel up with him to their feet. He points to the hill he had described to have a spiral in the middle. Rachel takes out her camera that has unbelievable survived everything that had just happened and begins taking photos. This is incredible for Rachel. She gains information about the structure she and her friends are seeking not from a mortal, but a god! Even the tiniest fragment of this information is more than enough help for them to solve this ongoing mystery.

As the winds blows on the mountaintop, Rachel could almost swear she could hear Dreamfinder and Figment’s voices calling for her. After going through all these circumstances, she longed to be with them again safely flying away on their Dream Machine from the madness Crizwalke has put upon them. The voices are rising louder and higher than just the wind blowing. She looks down below her and sees two familiar looking persons running up to the top of the mountain where she stands.

“Dreamfinder? Figment?” Rachel whispers a gasp.

“Stay close to me, Rachel.” Álvaro ordered as he clung Rachel into his arms, assuming the two persons below are a threat to the girl’s safety. 

Holding on to Rachel tightly, Álvaro jumps off the ground and lies towards his intruders carrying Rachel along with him.

********************************************************************************************************

The cable car finally rises up to the surfacing ground at the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain. With Crizwalke and N-1354 coming up right behind them, Dreamfinder, Figment, Alex and Ron have only seconds to collect themselves out of the car and find Rachel and Álvaro. It slowly lands safely away from the outer edges of the cliff sides. The crew forces the car doors open and runs out in a flash. Dreamfinder, being the only person with longer legs in the group, rushes ahead of the gang with Figment flying right behind him and Alex and Ron falling behind.

“Rachel! RACHEL!” Dreamfinder screamed while searching for her.

“Rachel! Where are you?” Figment called out.

“Figment! Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouted from afar.

Dreamfinder’s attention shot straight at Rachel’s voice. He sees her being carried to him by Álvaro and lets out a huge smile of relief.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder screams again. “Rachel, we’re coming for you!”

But before Dreamfinder could sprint another step, Álvaro lets out a loud roar. No, not a nice roar, but an angry one. He lands right in front of Dreamfinder, making Dreamfinder fall backwards with fright. Figment flies up behind his creator only to be affected by the loud, powerful, wind-defying roar of Álvaro. Álvaro growls at Figment seething with rage inside. He drops Rachel safely and jumps at Figment, pinning the poor little purple dragon to the ground with no way out.

“Álvaro! What are you doing?” Rachel screamed in terror.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder shouted.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouted.

Greeting each other once again with a hug, Dreamfinder cries, “Oh Rachel, I’m so glad you’re safe. And…and your hair. It’s grown back!”

"Sheesh! What happened to you?" she asked, noticing how dirty Dreamfinder's clothes look.

"We just came up from battling an army of Crizwalke robot police."

"Without me?"

"You were gone."

"Next time there's an epic robot battle, please tell me so I can kick some ass."

"Sure thing. And Language!" 

"Help!" Figment screamed.

Then Dremafinder gasps, "Oh my gosh! Figment!"

“Álvaro! Stop!” Rachel, ignoring Dreamfinder’s remark for now, runs up to Álvaro to save Figment.

“Rachel! Stay back!” Álvaro shouts behind him. “This demon is mine to kill!”

“What?” Figment shrieks.

“Demon?” Dreamfinder and Rachel shout with shock.

“No! Let him go!” Rachel screams.

“That’s my imaginary friend you’re strangling down!” said Dreamfinder to Álvaro. “Let him go this instant!”

But all that did was make Álvaro roar back at Rachel and Dreamfinder. Scared by the outcomes, Dreamfinder grabs Rachel’s hand and lead her away to safety. Coming up to them are Alex and Ron Wavers. They watch the defender of all people holding Figment down where Ron realizes that he had forgotten to tell one little detail about the immortal winged Katkin. The brothers join up with Rachel and Dreamfinder safely behind a rock. As they all peek over the edge of their hiding place, Ron begins to say his forgotten fact.

“Okay, minor setback.” Ron said. “I forgot to tell you that Álvaro hates dragons! It’s one of the ‘dark’ things he’s always fought against to protect us all.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Dreamfinder screamed.

“I’m sorry! It’s normally easy for me to skip over these things without knowing that I did until the end.”

“Let me talk to him.” said Rachel and then runs off. “He trusts me!”

“Rachel, wait!” Alex called out.

“Rachel, come back here!” Dreamfinder ordered, but Rachel would not listen.

Rachel reaches up to Álvaro and tries to push him away from Figment. The poor dragon could not look away from the winged Katkin’s eyes without screaming with fear. This sort of thing as far as the screaming goes normally doesn’t happen considering his attitude is based on the dash of childish delight.

“Álvaro! Stop it!” Rachel shouts.

“Get behind me, Rachel!” Álvaro orders her. “This beast can claw you fast to your death if you’re not careful.”

“Álvaro! That’s one of the acquaintances I’ve told you about. THAT’S FIGMENT!”

“What? Figment?”

“Yeah, I’m the Figment of Imagination!” said Figment. “But you can call me ‘Figment’ for short.”

“I’ll shorten this death sentence if you don’t tell me who you really are this second!” Álvaro shouted as he gripped onto Figment’s neck and chokes him tightly.

“He’s telling you the truth, Álvaro!” said Rachel. “I’m telling you the truth! This dragon is not like any of the foes you have faced. And that human man with the top hat behind that rock is the Dreamfinder, my other acquaintance! Please, you’ve got to trust me as I have just trusted in you.”

Álvaro sees Dreamfinder behind the rock with Alex and Ron and then looks back at the scared Figment. Could Rachel possibly be telling the truth about this person in dirty white clothes and purple creature? He hates dragons. He’s fought and slain those things all his life. How can one little dragon be particularly different from all the rest? Then again, how can he not listen to Rachel after she had opened her ears and poured her sympathies to his stories? Álvaro lets go of Figment and backs away to Rachel’s side.

“You are acquaintances with…with…a dragon?” Álvaro asked with disbelief.

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I thought that’s what Figment really was at the beginning, too.” said Rachel.

“We mean you or even Rachel no harm, Mr. Katkin-God, sir...Álvaro.” Figment stated. “We need your help.”

“We?” Álvaro repeated with one of his eyebrows lifted up.

Dreamfinder, Alex and Ron all come out from behind the rock and stand before the winged Katkin. Perhaps more than Dreamfinder did Alex and Ron feel their bodies become frozen at the presence of their anthropomorphic leader. They both fell to their knees with their heads down and arms out and bowed before Álvaro in great respect. Álvaro watches the two young Katkins do this and smiles.

“My children…” Álvaro whispers aloud.

The winged Katkin walks to Alex and Ron and kneels before them. He lifts their heads to get a better view of them. It fills his heart to see two of his own kind with good hearts inside to come to him at a time of great importance. Álvaro reads the thoughts of both his young brethren, as is one of his powers, for their names and their best intentions: to help save their home from extreme peril.

“Alexander and Ronaldo Wavers.” Álvaro said. “Your names are grand in definition. Alexander meaning ‘defender of the people’ and Ronaldo meaning ‘famous land.’ I knew...of a young Katkin who accompanied me at my side the night I was drugged into slumber. You, Alexander, you look exactly like him. And you, Ronaldo, you look so much like how my father once looked before in the days of his youth. I have no doubt whatsoever that you two are born with these great names for great purposes. For this, I am at your service for whatever you desire.”

Alex and Ron both look to Álvaro and smile. Such an honor it is to meet and to be lovingly complimented by an idol such as this one particular Katkin. Álvaro pets both the brothers’ heads fondly. It seems they have succeeded in what they and Dreamfinder and Figment came to do.

Out of nowhere, however, a terrifying sound had occurred. A bullet shot through the air echoing across the sky from the top of the mountain. The bullet came from Governor Crizwalke's and hit straight at Ron’s shoulder! The young Katkin screams the sound his own voice mixed with a cat’s meow in agony. He clenches onto the shoulder that had been shot and falls to the ground in front of his own younger brother’s eyes.

“RONALDO!” Alex screams.

“Ron!” everyone else shout with terror.

Smoke is seeping out of the hole of the gun held by Walker Crizwalke himself with Officer N-1354 beside him. He had done what Álvaro had feared he would do to another being: kill his 50,000th victim.


	18. Chapter 18

Crizwalke reloads another bullet in his gun and aims it directly at Alex next. Álvaro hears the gun click. He immediately covers Alex with one of his wings and ducks the young Katkin toward his chest for protection. His teeth clenches with rage as did his fists. His eyes looked as if they going to pop out with fury. Álvaro is none too happy.

“You fool!” Álvaro shouted. “Don’t you realize what you have done?”

“I see it.” said Crizwalke. “I know what I did. That will teach him to vandalize political property.”

“You monster!” Rachel screamed.

“Have you no heart?” Dreamfinder shouted.

“Forget it, guys.” Alex growled. “He’s already sold his soul for more money and power.”

“Interesting way of describing me, cat boy.” Crizwalke sneered. “What’s the harm anyway other than your brother being dead? Just another life lost like all people loses when the time comes for death to claim them.”

“You don’t understand, Crizwalke!” Rachel shouted. “This is a hazardous crime you are doing to the people of Iyrilia. Simply killing your 50,000th victim will be like casting a giant flood over they city, literally! And if Ron here dies from that bullet you just shot at him, this whole place is going to blow with blood!”

“Are you going to fall for that stupid legend, little lady?”

“Again with the little lady crap…” she growled quietly.

“Crizwalke, don’t you realize that if Ron dies and that blood destroys everything in the Iyrilia, you won’t have any people to govern or terrorize anymore?” Figment logically asked.

“Indeed!” Dreamfinder yelled. “You’re only destroying everyone to gain false superiority without what you would call ‘reward.’”

“So what if the city crumbles?” said Crizwalke. “There’s a reason why I shut down the gondola lift a long time ago. Even if this silly prophecy is true, which I doubt, I will safely place myself into a full proof shield I had built right here at the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain and all natural life down below will perish, leaving my robots the only people to survive for me to control.”

“Why are you doing this?” Rachel yells.

“Yeah, and more importantly: why are you so stupid?” Alex barks.

“Part of my nature, I suppose, except for the stupid part.” Crizwalke said. “If anyone was stupid, it would have to be my brother Ted. And all he had to do was listen to me, but he wouldn’t so he’s out of office permanently.”

“Governor Ted? You mean…you…you killed Governor Ted? YOU KILLED YOUR OWN BROTHER?”

“Haven’t you read your fairytales, boy? Brothers have rivalries. They always do! Teddy was never willing to take advantage of the possibilities we could get for the city. I simply had to take charge of office for him. So how can your relationship with your brother be any different? No, don’t tell me! I know what it is: it’s because he believes in you and you believe in him. That is so cliché. So naïve.”

“Call it what you want, but that has always been my reality…you son of A VIXEN!”

Alex runs out of Álvaro’s protective wing and charges at Crizwalke. As Crizwalke begins to point his gun at Alex this time, Dreamfinder charges after Alex and the governor. The young Katkin screams his cat-like cry as he jumps onto Crizwalke, making the governor miss his shot and shooting that bullet towards the air. He scratches and claws Crizwalke’s fat face with his hidden claws, natural one unlike the custom claws from Ron’s vest. 

The Dreamfinder, however, attempts to grab Alex away from the governor but got caught N-1354 by the neck instead. The robot chokes Dreamfinder and slashes a small cut on his face until Dreamfinder began to turn blue. Figment and Rachel come after the robot to save their dream-fulfilling friend. They each take a sturdy rock and whack the robot’s red glass eyes blinding it and malfunctioning its circuit wires in its head. The glass on both eyes broke easily, but that only made the robot’s head spin vigorously. And with that N-1354 whacks Figment away to where Álvaro stands with Ron in his arms, while Rachel has been tossed away nearly being knocked out senseless. Sparks come flying out of its own neck landing onto Dreamfinder’s beard. The young inventor, fuming with anger at the sight of his friends getting hurt, quickly takes out one of his screwdrivers and stabs N-1354, pulling it down between its eyes. He then pulls the screwdriver back out and stabs it again onto the arm that is connecting the robot to choking Dreamfinder. The arm breaks off from the screwdriver and N-1354’s claw lets go of Dreamfinder’s neck.

The purple-pigmented dragon slowly gets up weakly. He couldn’t help but notice that while Dreamfinder, Alex and Rachel are fighting against Crizwalke and N-1354, Álvaro and Ron are missing. His big yellow eyes searched the area until he finds Álvaro carrying Ron away. But why?

********************************************************************************************************

The aftershock of the bullet piercing Ron’s shoulder is taking affect, disturbing the blood flow and connections in his nervous system. He cringes and cries in agony as the pain continues to torture him. Álvaro carries the poor Katkin away to safety onto the grassy patch he had previously laid Rachel upon. He lays Ron onto his stomach with his shoulder facing Álvaro. Álvaro rips off Ron’s shirt and finds the spot where the bullet had been hit on and the blood that is staining that shirt. With his magic, Álvaro traces the route where the bullet has traveled into Ron. He tries to pull it out carefully with that magic while Ron endures this pain and screams horrifically in the process. The Katkin boy’s cries are draining away his energy. He doesn’t want to suffer anymore. It would have been best to have just taken that shot and die. But Álvaro would not stand for it.

“Be still, Ronaldo.” Álvaro said. “You’re safe here.”

“Al…” Ron breathed quickly. “Alex…”

“Ron?” Figment said. 

Unannounced, the purple dragon Figment flies in to where Álvaro has taken Ron. Attempting to sit by Ron for his comfort, Figment tries to begin to do his good deed. But as he does Álvaro begins to growl at the dragon, who is still in disbelief of Figment possibly being his friend.. After hearing about Álvaro’s story, Figment could not find it in his heart to blame Álvaro for his concern. He’s seen too many radicals in the physical likenesses of Figment in the course of his life that had pursuit in harming his people many years ago. But all that changed when Álvaro hears Ron whimpering. Ron extends his hand out to Figment fragilely as his life continues to deplete quickly.

“Begone with you, you scaly rat! Ronaldo is hurt enough already.”

“Fig…ment…” Ron sighs.

“Please…” Figment whispers to Álvaro in a confirming, yet fearing way, “Ron is my friend. I mean no one any harm. Let me stay with him. Please.”

Álvaro notices a tear falling down from Figment’s eye and Ron’s arm reaching out to the purple dragon. Put two and two together and he finds that Figment is serious, which come out as a great surprise to him even though his expression doesn’t show it. Reluctantly, he nods to the dragon and lets him pass. Figment flies to Ron’s side and grab his hand while Álvaro continues to take the bullet out. As he does, Ron resumes his cries of pain but they are not as loud as before. They have become more like whimpering that screams. But at least Ron has a friend beside him for company.

“Come on, Ron.” Figment softly encourages Ron while holding his hand still. “Don’t give up. Alex is counting on you to live. You’re going to be alright. Álvaro is taking good care of you. Overcome that shot and you’ll save everyone from a terrible fate. Please, Ron. You have so much to offer this world just as Alex does. You must live.”

He takes out the bullet from Ron’s shoulder, finally, making Ron scream loudly, and seals the hole where it had made its mark. Now Ron’s breaths are slowly dying out. Even with the bullet out, it’s not changing Ron’s fate at the very least. His grip onto Figment’s hand loosened as his glasses fell from his face and his eyes dropped down.

“Ron, please live!” Figment encouraged.

“Alex…Dreamfi…Fig…” those were Ron’s last responses as he took his last breath.

“Ronaldo…my child.” Álvaro’s lip quivered and he weeps. “No…” He lifts Ron into his arms and places his head upon Álvaro’s heart. As Álvaro begins purring with his forehead against Ron’s, Figment begins to weep, too. He sniffs and his tears are falling down his crocodile face. To face death in this direction is agony.

“Oh no. Ron.” Figment whines softly and sniffles.

Crizwalke has succeeded in doing what he had just done: killing Ron. And now the worst of it is about to come. The red surface behind Figment is begining to boil. What kind of surface is that? It certainly isn’t lava or anything close to that. Álvaro knows what that is. 

 

It’s worse than lava…it’s blood.

 

The blood that Crizwalke had shed for the past ten years has finally reached its 50,000th! The dark side of Álvaro’s legend is beginning to come true!

“Figment.” Álvaro begins to speak, gaining Figment’s full on attention. “The dark prophecy I have spoken of many years ago is about to come true at last. Ronaldo’s blood that had been spilt by this mad descendant of humans has commenced the beginning of the end.”

“There’s got to be something we can do.” Figment said, drying his tears. “Perhaps if we used the power of imagination, we can prevent this whole mess from happening!”

“There is nothing that can prevent this cause now. But perhaps, if you are serious and correct about what the powers of imagination can do, we may be able to stall the process for a while. That should be long enough for everyone escape this cursed fate.” Álvaro shifts Ron to be carried in one arm. He places the hand of his other arm onto Figment’s shoulder and states, “Figment, if you really are my friend and ally, then let us stop this mayhem together.”

Figment smiles, grabs onto Álvaro’s hand in a handshake and says, “I’m with you all the way! Let’s do it!”

********************************************************************************************************

Freed from N-1354’s grip, Dreamfinder finds Rachel’s body facing flat down on her front side. If there is one other thing he gets mad at other than having Figment getting hurt, it’s having a woman get hurt. His teeth clenches with anger, his fists tightened and his eyes stared coldly at the robot who had hurt his girl.

“Alright…” Dreamfinder growled gruffly as he wipes off whatever blood is left from the scratch on his cheek. “This whole robot-choking-peoples’-necks thing has gone far enough.” He then raises his voice and points to his beard saying, “Nothing…nobody…messes…with the beard on my face.” And then Dreamfinder screams, “And more importantly, nobody…messes…WITH MY GIRL!”

As the N-1354 charges up to Dreamfinder with his head spinning in circles and sparks spewing out, it does not realize what Dreamfinder has in store for it. Dreamfinder has his eyes closed tight. He concentrates very hard on what the powers of his imagination may visualize in his head. What starts out as a small blur in his mind has soon grown into a picture of a pair of gauntlets of gold with tiny pistons pumping on the sides that would give off steam every time Dreamfinder would tighten his grip. For normal people, amazing equipment like that does not often fall right onto their hands. That is a different case for this young inventor. As the Dreamfinder, he can turn whatever pops up in his imagination into a reality and use it to help others. Focusing very hard the gauntlets finally comes to life safely placed onto Dreamfinder’s hands and forearms. 

The muscles in his arms tensed as his temper rises. With those gauntlets, Dreamfinder is ready to smash and bash anything! Just as N-1354 is within ten feet of colliding into Dreamfinder, the young inventor readies himself and punches the robot’s head of its shoulders knocking its entire body over backwards. He makes a high jump with his hands tightly holding together and crashes them into N-1354’s chest where the central core system, the source of his power, is intact and destroys it. As Dreamfinder jumps back away from the robot’s body, it explodes. All that’s left is N-1354’s head still glittering with sparks and broken wires. But as soon as Dreamfinder decides to smash the head, Rachel comes up and kicks the head off the side of the mountain.

“YEAH! How do you like that?” Rachel shouts at the falling head with pride.

“Rachel! You're alright!" Dreamfinder cheered. "Nice kick!”

“Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.”

But it was not good enough, either. As Dreamfinder and Rachel were about to celebrate their victory, N-1354’s head hovers over the horizon of the cliff with a helicopter on top spinning in the high altitude of the mountain, astounding Dreamfinder and Rachel with disbelief.

“OH, COME ON!” Dreamfinder shouts.

“Okay. If we live through this, I am going to write the best multi-genre suspense novel EVER!” Rachel chuckles.

“Well, like you said, we gotta LIVE through this first!”

“Don’t worry. I got this.”

The robot head then comes flying toward Rachel and Dreamfinder for a final blow. Only this blow will blow up at its face. When it came close enough to Rachel, the girl twirls and karate kicks the head in its face sending it flying back over the side of the cliff.

“Kempo.” Rachel smirked, once again filled with pride.

“That was nicely done, Ms. Rachel.” Dreamfinder said, impressed with Rachel’s maneuver.

“It’s all in the feet.”

********************************************************************************************************

The brawl between Alex Waver and Governor Crizwalke is intense. Alex advances his clawing onto the governor’s face. Since he’s not a grown adult his claws aren’t long enough to pierce right through, but they are definitely long enough to leave a multitude of scratches and scars. He scratches Crizwalke’s face, his eyes, his suit into shreds, and the back of his ears. Some of Crizwalke’s blood has stained Alex’s hands. The young Katkin is fuming with rage over the shooting of his older brother. It is something Crizwalke could never be forgiven for as well as all the other pointless attacks on the innocent. Among them, Crizwalke had taken out his own brother and Alex’s mother, father and at this point, Ron.

Because of this, the grounds of the mountain begin to shake. Everyone starts tripping and falling down. The blood leftover from Crizwalke’s past murders at the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain starts to spew off like a volcano. The clouds above and around the mountain turn gray and filled with lightning. Ron’s death has triggered the soon-to-be-tragedy that will overwhelm the city below into a pit of despair. Those clouds around the mountain close into the open creases while the clouds above the mountain form together and start turn as back as night. Time has run out for our heroes. All is lost…

“Ron…” Alex said, stopping his clawing as he realizes the final impact of his brother’s death.

“It’s over, cat boy!” said Crizwalke. “You can’t stop what is happening now.”

“But…didn’t you just say you don’t believe in Álvaro’s legend?”

“I don’t, though I’ll admit that this is a pretty glorious sight.”

“Glorious? More like mad! Insane! Cuckoo! Mutiny!”

“Like me.”

“Who the heck are you?” Alex yelled.

“Don’t you know who I am?” Crizwalke asked back. “Today, I’m just the governor of Iyra City. But in general I am the living and soul descendant of Jean Vonerok, the man who had slain 49,999 victims in a week centuries ago.”

Alex gasped with surprise as Criwalke continues. 

“I never counted on how many people I had killed, but I will kill another 49,999 more if I have to stay on top of power.”

Then Alex smirks and continues, “I sure do wonder what everyone else in the city has to say about.”

Alex confidently clicks onto his wristwatch. As it beeps, Crizwalke hears a feint helicopter sound from behind. Crizwalke turns and finds a small piece of aircraft floating above the high altitude. It’s the same drone Alex and Dreamfinder had been tinkering with last night! Alex’s own invention is in operation right now to trick Crizwalke into spilling out the truth. Then Alex clicks onto the wristwatch again. This time, he’s activated it for something intense.

********************************************************************************************************

Back in the city below, the war between the robots against the humans and animals still goes on. At the Iyrilian Tower where most of the fighting is happening, an image pops out on the windows of the skyscraper like a television screen. Everyone’s attention is then drawn to the live video shot of Governor Crizwalke and Alex Wavers revealing the truth of who had killed Governor Ted Crizwalke and how Crizwalke is a descendant of Jean Vonerok. The people gasp in horror and surprise. This explains so much about everything! The words they had heard coming out of Crizwalke’s mouth has driven deeper into the hearts of his tortured people and encourages them to fight off the robot police some more. This war has a new meaning behind it now. It’s not just a battle of rebellion; it’s a fight against all living hell.

********************************************************************************************************

“I hacked into your computer system last night after Dreamfinder and I finished building this drone. There’s a hidden camera inside filming and recording everything that is happening now within a 50-mile radius from sounds to visuals.” said Alex, feeling proud of his accomplishment. “Now everyone in the city knows the real truth.”

“So what if they finally know now?” Crizwalke sneered. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You will all be destroyed in seconds while I’m safely cuddled inside my full proof shield waiting for all the lives to deplete.”

“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Dreamfinder yells.

Side-by-side Dreamfinder, Rachel Figment and Álvaro with Ron stand behind Alex in support. There is no way Crizwalke can pass though a large group like this.

“So you are the living disciple of the man who had drugged me to sleep for thousands of years.” Álvaro growls. “And you are he who dares to cast the shadow of your murderous hand upon my beloved people you have carelessly slain. When we stop this mad prophecy from happening, you will pay dearly for the crimes you have committed in bringing death and torment to their waking lives.”

“Ooooh! I’m so scared!” Crizwalke teased. “You’re not even real! Even I cannot believe that Vonerok has ever done something like drugging a god. It’s impossible for gods and supernatural things to exist.”

“Then take a good look at our home dimension.” Rachel said, “Only humans are the intelligent life there. This right here is beyond supernatural in our book. Even Figment is beyond unlikely for nature to create in our own time period. Still, here he is!”

“Coincidence.”

“You’ve got eyes and ears, but you’re not seeing or listening!” Dreamfinder shouted. “This Katkin god is the real deal and you’re not seeing the destructive damage you have applied here.”

“Now you’re all just wasting my time here.” Crizwalke said impatiently.

“Says the guy who’s wasted so many lives in his career.” Figment points out.

“I try.” Crizwalke smirked.

“UGH!” Alex groans in disgust. “Why are we even talking to you? Let’s take him out!”

Álvaro looks up to the sky and watches the blood at the mountaintop rise. The blood collected over the years is building up inside those clouds turning them red. Once it starts to rain, it will be the end of Iyrilia forever.

The Katkin god places his hand onto Figment’s shoulder and says, “Figment, you go up ahead of me to those clouds. I must put Ronaldo in a safer place.”

“You got it!” Figment saluted. He flies up away from his friends towards the red clouds forming about the Twisted Peek Mountain.

“Dreamfinder and Alexander.” Álvaro says, “Make sure this man does not escape from you. My force will be his undoing for all of Iyrilia.”

“With pleasure.” Alex pounds his fist into his hand.

“It’s about time I put more of my imagination to use.” said Dreamfinder with confidence.

“Let’s do this!” Rachel exclaims.

“No, Rachel!” Álvaro shouts. “You must flee the mountain for your own safety.”

“What? No! Álvaro, I can take care of myself. I’ve only kicked a head of a robot and that doesn’t even come close to kicking somebody’s ass.”

“Again, Rachel! Language!” Dreamfinder shouts.

“Sorry. Force of habit.”

“Very well, Rachel.” said Álvaro, “I will leave it up to Dreamfinder and Alexander to guard you at all times.”

“Fine. Fair enough.” Rachel groans.

“All of you be safe.”

As Álvaro flies away with Ron leaving the small group to deal with Crizwalke, the three friends turn to the governor with angry expressions. The final battle for Iyrilia is commencing.

“Oh du-hu-hu-hu-hude. Are you in for it today or what.” Rachel smacks her fist into her other hand.

“Let’s end this.” Dreamfinder encourages.

“Once and for all.” Alex confirms.

“Now this will be fun.” Crizwalke grins evilly.

********************************************************************************************************

With Crizwalke occupied for a while, Álvaro flies with the deceased Ron to the mountaintop where Crizwalke said his full proof shield is stashed away. The last of the leftover blood is nearly off the mountain when he arrives. Time is running very short. He has to leave Ron somewhere and join with Figment or else the lives of his people will perish. With his magic, Álvaro concentrates his mind in feeling any metallic substances in his surroundings. Vibrations from the metals are beginning to form and throb through his fur and flesh. He searches for the shield following the vibrations that comes to him. Finally, he finds the shield buried almost completely in the dirt. Álvaro digs out the shield with his magic, opens it and gently places Ronaldo inside. Just before he closes it, Álvaro takes off the oversized robe-like scarf he’s wearing and wraps it around the young Katkin. It’s large enough to cover three children all at once and two grown adults separately. Álvaro pets Ronaldo’s head in his sympathy and presses his head onto the boy’s one last time for a brief purring. It’s the way for a Katkin of all kinds to react.

“You are the last this man has killed.” Álvaro spoke deeply. “I will avenge you and all the others that have been slain before you and give you all a peaceful rest.”

Álvaro finishes his purring and closes the shield tightly. With Ron inside, there is no way Crizwalke will be able to fit in suppose Dreamfinder, Rachel and Alex fail to keep him in one spot. He flies up and away to join Figment hoping it is not too late to save his people one last time.

********************************************************************************************************

It’s three against one now. Good guys versus bad. The governor tries to barge through the trio, but they wouldn’t budge. Rachel, Alex and Dreamfinder all join arms and run towards Crizwalke. Their arm cling onto Crizwalke’s body and tips him over backwards. On his back Crizwalke is left helpless to getting clobbered. Rachel jumps on top of Crizwalke and starts punching him in the jaw.

“That’s for dropping me down from a thousand feet!” Rachel socked a punch. Then another. “That’s for you to stop calling me ‘little lady!’ ” Then another for a black eye. “This is for killing so many people all at once!” Then another as Crizwalke’s nose begins to bleed. “That’s for making my hands hurt from punching you so much!” And finally, Rachel knees Crizwalke in the groin screaming, “And that’s for my enjoyment!”

“Ow! That’s got to hurt.” Dreamfinder cringed.

“Alex. Would you like to do the honors?”

“Gladly!” Alex replies. Rachel gets off of Crizwalke to let Alex on. With Alex now on top of Crizwalke, he delivers a mean blow on the governor. “THAT’S FOR KILLING RON AND MY PARENTS!”

********************************************************************************************************

The affects of Ron’s have gotten worse than before. The black clouds forming above in the sky have turned darker and blacker. Once all the blood is collected, the clouds will spread all over Iyrilia and bring an end to everything.

Álvaro finally catches up to Figment in time before the worst starts to come. The dragon is floating there thinking of the best idea he can think of to prevent this from happening. It’s about time to put the powers of imagination to the test. He stares at the clouds and thinks. His eyes are scrunched down in deep thought, he scratches his chin, and his tail wags ad twitches with every idea he comes up with. His concentration is deeply implanted into his brain. There has got to be something they could try.

“Well, Figment.” Álvaro spoke, “Have thou foundth an idea to stall this storm?”

“Hmm…” Figment hummed. “How far do the clouds go?”

“Far. Very far.”

“Hey! What if we can try to bring all these clouds together and squeeze it all out into a giant bottle?”

“That is an idiotic plan!” Álvaro roared. “There would be no place in Iyrilia to store it if we contained it. Especially from 50,000 deaths.”

“Hang on! I’m not finished. I’ve read that there are bio-disposal units that are specialized in tossing away blood after it’s been drawn and studied. If we can bottle up all this blood we may be able to find a special place in the city to store it away safely.”

“Testing blood?”

“It’s required for doctors to study them these days. But you see what I’m saying, right?”

Álvaro sighs “…I’ll try anything if you feel alright about it. For my people.”

“Great! Let’s do it!”

“But how do you expect we get all of these clouds together to do it?”

“Why do you think we have wings?” Figment asked as he rapidly flapped his own wings. “We can blow the clouds all to one spot and collect it from there.”

“This might work.”

“Come on! It’ll be fun!”

Figment flies ahead of Álvaro to those clouds. Excited he is about his plan. It overpowers his fear of what the Iyrilian world is coming to be. He shoots up like a rocket bracing the strong terrifying winds blowing against his purple crocodile face. For a little dragon with tiny wings, he sure is a strong flyer. I might be his confidence getting the best of him.

With Álvaro right behind him, the two flyers soar through the storm towards the ceiling of the clouds. They clash together with the clouds like gladiators prepared for battle. And then like a tornado, Álvaro and Figment begin to swirl around the clouds rallying them up like cows.

********************************************************************************************************

Alex’s continuous clawing and punching have bloodied Governor Crizwalke’s face. Sickened by its outcomes, Dreamfinder turns his head away in disgust. Same with Rachel for she was at first enjoying the punching on a person’s face, but even she knows when enough is enough. Her throat and nose are clogged with the sickening scent of blood in high altitude feeling the need to puke.

“Okay Alex.” Rachel moaned while covering her mouth. “I think he’s had enough with you.”

“No!” Alex yells. “He killed so many innocent people including my family! He needs to know my wrath!”

“There are other ways to deal with people who causes trouble like this, you know.” Dreamfinder said, who is also trying to look away from Crizwalke.

“Save your breath, dream boy.” Crizwalke gurgled through his blood. “It’s not going to matter anymore. You will all die pretty soon. It’s what Jean Vonerok would have wanted.”

“Well obviously, this guy sounded much more twisted of a person the more I think of him. It’s like Satan on Earth, only he’s more deeply underground the Earth’s crust with no free will to leave until a thousand years are up.”

“Why would you even mention that?” Dreamfinder yelled. “Seriously? Why?”

“I guess my mind’s a little dark at the moment. It happens sometimes and I really hate that. And I’m a Lutheran, too, as far as irony goes. So what’s up with that?”

“I figured your imagination was being harmed in some way.”

“What do you mean?" Rachel said, sounding a little offended. "Is that supposed to mean something, Dreamfinder?”

“Excuse me, can we focus more on what’s going on now than talk about your Earth’s religions?” Alex growled.

“Right. Sorry.” Rachel and Dreamfinder both said and shrugged with guilt.

“Anyways, Crizwalke, there is no way I’m ever going to forgive you for what you’ve done. Especially to my brother and my friends.”

“I don’t need your forgiveness, Alex.” said Crizwalke. “It’s all about power. So I’ve abused it so much. It hasn’t hurt me so far.”

“Well it’s going to hurt you really badly pretty soon once Álvaro comes back to deal with you.”

“Oh, so scary! Why do you three even bother with his nonsense? You won’t get anywhere in life with fanciful, dreamy stupidity!”

For some reason, that had made Dreamfinder quiver and turn his head away from everyone for the moment. He’s heard those words before, but where? Only Dreamfinder would know. The mere mention of those words got him to remember a time when they were first said and nearly plummeted him to the brink of faithlessness. Yet somehow he managed to stand tall and do what he does today: helping make everyone’s dreams come true.

Dreamfinder takes a deep breath, turns back to Crizwalke and says, “That’s a little insulting to me personally considering my line of work, Mr. Crizwalke. To be fair, what would you know about fanciful, dreamy stupidity?”

“Oh plenty, Dreamfinder. Plenty.” Crizwalke chuckled. “My brother had it all in his head to spread around like a virus. I’m glad none of that affected me. All his dreams have ever done for him was getting him killed.”

“We all make sacrifices as dreamers. It begins with one step forward. Apparently, you’ve failed to realize the greater good Ted Crizwalke was trying to do for his city. You’d be more than lucky to have the kind of imagination like he did, like most good people would. Álvaro and Figment up there, those two are perfect examples are what imagination can bring to us all. Álvaro has done heroic deeds in his life that has inspired people to make the world a better place. And Figment encourages others to continue dreaming for their goals to be fulfilled and have hope. I don’t know you all too well other than what you have done to these people here in Iyrilia, Crizwalke, but I can say that if you had given yourself time to think about what greater things you could have done instead of showing the cruel side of reality all the time, then maybe you would have done as much good as your brother did.”

“Wow.” Rachel said with an impressed tone. “That was pretty good, Dreamer.”

“It’s all in the philosophy, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder with a hint of pride.

“Oh gosh.” said Crizwalke in a higher tone. “You’re probably right. Oh, if only I had known this sooner. You know what I think?” Then Crizwalke make a raspberry as Dreamfinder’s face leaving a bad taste of his own blood in his mouth. Obviously, he hasn’t learned a thing.

“HEY!” Rachel yelled. She pushes Alex off of Crizwalke, sits back on top of Crizwalke, starts choking him by the neck and yells “I’d keep that tongue silent in my mouth if I were you, punk!”

“Whatever you like, little lady.” Crizwalke smirked.

“And you shut up about the ‘little lady’ bit!”

“Indeed!” Dreamfinder yelled. “Respect the woman.”

“I’d rather not.” Crizwalke teased. “As a kid, I used to think of girls as yucky. Now as an adult, I find women kind of spunky in their own way. Especially this one right here.”

As Crizwalke grips onto Rachel chin, she gives him another punch in the face and says, “PERVERT! SNAKE!”

“Save him for Álvaro, Rachel.” Dreamfinder said. “And one last thing.” Then Dreamfinder delivers another punch onto Crizwalke’s face and says, “Touch her again and I’ll throttle you down to bloody hell!”

“Let’s hold him over the side of the cliff!” Alex suggested.

“I believe I have already done enough un-gentlemen acts for today.”

“How about tie him up and hold him at that wall over there?” Rachel suggested.

“Sounds a little better.” said Dreamfinder. “Alex, do you have a rope?”

“Right here.” said Alex as he clicks onto his wristwatch. “See, it’s not only a cellular watch, it also storages physical items in tiny little bits.”

“Nice!” Rachel exclaims.

“Necessity really is the mother of invention!”

“Hmm…not bad.” Crizwalke admitted.

Alex pulls out the rope from his wristwatch and hands it to Dreamfinder. Then Dreamfinder has Rachel and Alex sit Crizwalke up and he ties the rope around the governor. With the rope squeezing Crizwalke together and the knot tightly fastened, the trio drags Crizwalke toward the nearest wall. They stare Crizwalke down in high guard and waits. It’s up to Álvaro to decide what he plans to do with him.


	19. Chapter 19

Figment’s imagination must play the role of hero if he wants to save Iyrilia from being destroyed. The fate of the city and the rest of this realm are in his hands and his wings as well as Álvaro’s. The purple dragon and Álvaro race higher towards the dark clouded skies as they start using wings to corral the clouds into one spot. The procedure is very dangerous. Lightning and thunder sounded in the air. The atmosphere turned dark as night with its black lightning as its only source of light. All the wasted blood within the clouds are multiplying, mixing and storing inside those clouds making it harder for Figment and Álvaro to tackle on their maneuver. Still, they each pursue to collect the clouds as quickly as possible before they spill the blood all over Iyrilia.

It is no easy task. Corralling those clouds is like corralling cattle into a gated barn with no horse, sheep dog, or reigns. All they are doing it both manually and aerially. They each swirl and twirl around the clouds like a tornado faster and faster and faster. Figment can only fly as fast as he can. Álvaro’s speed, however, is enough to reach towards the speed of light. He can easily bring all the clouds together, but to do so would not only push Figment off of his balance but also pick up and blow away everyone else down below. It is best for Álvaro to keep his speed to a minimum; enough to bring the bloodied and lightning clouds into place while not having everyone else get hurt.

The clouds are all coming together as planned. Though the risk of combining the selfishly squandered blood into a giant cascade heightens, at least it will all be collected in one place. But the clouds aren’t the only things being mixed in. Some of the stones and boulders that floated around the Twisted Peek Mountain caught onto Figment and Álvaro’s wind cycle and join with the clouds eroding into nothingness by the decaying blood. If this keeps up, everyone on the ground including Dreamfinder, Alex and Rachel will be carried away to their doom.

“F-Figment!” Álvaro yells as he pressures himself through the harsh winds. “The-The bottle!”

“I got you covered, Álvaro!” Figment saluted. He leaves his position of cloud collecting heading straight down to the bottom of the corralling. Rubbing his hands, he says, “Lets put this baby all bottled up!”

Concentrating very hard, Figment begins to imagine a very large glass bottle appearing right before. Normally, Figment can think up of things to appear in a snap, but the atmosphere he’s in it’s become very hard to do so. The best way to imagine things to life is to clear his mind first. So that’s what he did. With an empty canvas in his thoughts, he is now able to picture the giant bottle and bring it to life.

Suddenly, in the midst of the wind, a large glowing spark appears out of thin air. In that spark a giant glass bottle appears and safely lands onto the ground. It’s about three quarters the size of the mountain. Hopefully there is enough room to collect all the blood in. If it doesn’t, it’s all over.

“Alright! It’s all set!” Figment called out as he returns to Álvaro.

“Good!” said Álvaro. “Keep an eye on the vortex for me for a bit. I must check on the others on the mountain.”

“Sure thing!”

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Everyone in Iyra City takes notice of the skies getting darker and darker by the second. Knowing very well of the dark prophecy Álvaro had announced thousands of years ago, they well knew that it’s about to come true. Frightened to their wits, the people of the city drop their weapons and scatters away from the robot police. Employees and engineers of the Iyrilian Tower begin evacuating the building fearing that the prophecy is happening and that the storm might cause the windows to break and shatter at their faces. Companies of all kinds have abandoned their shops and warehouses to avoid the storm including Mr. Hamm from his burger shop. Houses and apartments and orphanages have also evacuated the premises to hide away. Many of them have reached the underground shelters safely while everyone else have been confronted by the robots along the way. Those who were left behind, be they man, woman and child, have either been slaughtered by the robot police or took the time to grab another weapon and bash a few more before finally reaching the shelters. Screams of terror filled the air as the dark prophecy continues to approach them. It’s the end of Iyra City…the end of the world!

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Back on the mountain, Dreamfinder, Alex and Rachel each guard the tied-up Crizwalke making sure he doesn’t escape. They stare him down like mad bulls waiting to bash him to his death at the sight of Crizwalke’s cheeks blushing red and covered with his own blood. Unfortunately, Crizwalke seems to be enjoying this. His twisted mind is concentrated on whatever successes he believes he has gained. The trio begins to wonder how anyone could have a mind like Crizwalke has. Then again, it’s best not to think about that, especially at a time like this.

The wind in the storm suddenly blows a giant gust against them. Dusts clouds and pebbles begin flying into the air at their faces nearly blinding them in the process. Dreamfinder’s hat blows away again as he holds onto Rachel tightly with protection. Alex covers his eyes in his arms with his tail curled onto one of his legs.

“The storm is getting worse!” Dreamfinder yells.

“What could they be doing up there?” Rachel screams.

“Whatever it is, they’d better do it quicker or we’re done for!”

“Hey! Where’s Crizwalke?” Alex yells.

While the storm rages on, the dust clouds have made it nearly impossible for the three friends to see anything making it the perfect time for Crizwalke to roll away from Dreamfinder, Rachel and Alex, get on his feet and make his escape. They all search around until Rachel spots a forth figure running away in the distance.

“There he is! Over there!” Rachel shouts.

“He’s heading toward the top of the mountain!” Dreamfinder shouts.

“That must be where he’s hidden the his full proof shield thing.” Alex shouts back. “Let’s get him!”

“Everyone stay together!”

They chase Crizwalke into the dust storm together. Even with Dreamfinder holding onto Rachel’s hand and Rachel with Alex’s, none of them can figure out the path Crizwalke had left behind. The flying dirt covered everything around them including the ground they’re running on. There is no way anyone can know if they are running on land or falling off the mountain. The only way of knowing is by going for it.

Suddenly, Dreamfinder’s foot slips off the side of the mountain. He falls but is caught by Rachel and Alex by the arms. His shirt is torn by whatever hanging branches are perched beneath him. His chest has been cut and like tiger claws and began to bleed as Rachel and Alex pull Dreamfinder back up to solid ground. When Rachel sees Dreamfinder like this, she nearly screamed with horror. The sight of Dreamfinder like this is far unlike what she began to know him as. Physically, Dreamfinder was a happy, optimistic, kind-looking man. Now in the depths of windy, dust-filled, apocalyptic storm he’s become a hardcore, bruised and fierce being.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel cried. “You’re-”

“I’m alright, Rachel.” Dreamfinder said. “I promise you, I’m okay.”

“Dude! Your shirt!” Alex pointed out. “And your chest!”

“I’m fine!”

“Here.” Rachel takes off the blue jacket and magenta dress vest and returns them to Dreamfinder, leaving her with just a white shirt.

Dreamfinder rips out his own shirt and takes whatever is left to bind his scratched wounds. He gladly takes back his clothing and puts them on. That made Rachel feel slightly better knowing Dreamfinder is going to be okay.

“Thank you, Rachel.” Dreamfinder smiled.

“Thank you letting me borrow them from the start.” Rachel blushed.

“There’s too much dirt covering over us.” Alex admitted. “We can’t find Crizwalke in this weather.”

“Or find a way off the mountain safely for that matter.” Rachel added.

“I have an idea!” Dreamfinder exclaimed. “Alex, can your drone cut through the storm to where we are?”

“Sure. Why?” Alex asked.

“If the camera on the drone can see within a 50-mile radius, then maybe we can use that to see our way thought the storm and find Crizwalke.”

“Dude! That’s brilliant!” Rachel exclaimed.

“I’ll try it out.” Alex confirmed.

Alex presses a button onto his wristwatch summoning the drone to come to him. For a moment nothing happens. The storm must be too strong for the drone to budge through. But then Alex, with his incredible hearing for a Katkin to have, hears a feint beeping sound coming from behind. He turns around and sees a small lighting glowing brighter and brighter as it came closer. It was the drone braving through the chaos of the storm to its creator.

“I see it!” Alex yells excitedly. “Over there!”

The drone arrives into Alex’s arms tucking it safely within him. Then Alex takes control of the camera and aims it away from him and his friends. Behind the drone is a secret screen where if it were to be used like binoculars, they can see everything through regular, night vision or even x-ray vision. The screen turns and shows a road towards the top of the mountain. The visual is pretty feint considering the storm, but it’s good enough to get them through.

“I got it!” Alex said, “And I see Crizwalke is heading to the top of the mountain!”

“Then let’s not waste anymore time here!” Dreamfinder suggested. “Lead the way, Alex!”

Everyone grabs each other’s hands and follows Alex to the mountaintop with Alex’s drone to guide them. Hopefully, they won’t have to slide off any more cliffs.

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Still tied up in Alex’s ropes, Crizwalke dashes towards the top of the Twisted Peek not knowing where his feet would be planted if he were likely to fall off the cliff side of the mountain. Still he managed to get himself up there with an incredible amount of luck on his side. Sadly for him, it won’t last long.

Making it through the dust clouds and into the cleaner air where everything is more visible to see, he sees the full proof shield sitting at the mountaintop. It is shaped like a cylinder, kind of like a capsule. Confidence has built inside him and he ran towards it. Crizwalke has everything all figured out. He made the shield full proof of any natural or artificial disasters, he has a secret code to lock and unlock the door, he placed a soft cushion inside for his comfort along with a few snacks and beverages to tide him over for a while, an air conditioner and heater, and a harmless laser built in to sterilize any bacteria or germs he could be carrying inside so it can become completely sanitary. What more is there to consider? Just one slight problem.

As Crizwalke arrives at the shield capsule with complete faith that he will be safe from the major disaster he has caused. But by the time he was about to open the door, he notices that someone is already in there: Ron’s body!

“What? What are you doing in there?” Crizwalke yelled, forgetting that he’s yelling at a dead body. “Get out!”

He grabs onto the door latch and pulls it, but it won’t open. The door has been welded shut. Álvaro. He saw the Katkin last when Álvaro was holding Ron in his arms. It was Álvaro who put Ron inside the safety capsule. Now Crizwalke is getting pretty scared. Everything in his world is ending and there is no safe house for him to take cover in. He is now at the mercy of the storm he has created and Álvaro’s wrath. It probably would have been best if had still been getting beat up by Alex, Rachel and Dreamfinder.

“Come on! Open! Open up!” Crizwalke struggled. “That’s my capsule you’re sitting in!”

But that was not the only problem he’s dealing with. In the distance, he can see the little purple dragon Figment controlling the vortex by himself.

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All the clouds Figment could collect with Álvaro’s help have all come into place. They hover over the giant glass bottle Figment imagined into reality. The only problem is that the cloud is way too big compared the size of the bottle. How is Figment going to get all the wasted blood into the bottle without having the cloud straying away? Solution? A funnel! A funnel might be big enough to collect every ounce and every drop of blood the storm clouds will spill. Figment concentrates his imagination and imagines a giant funnel as tall as the mountain itself from stem to cone. The cone appears beside the mountain and lands its stem into the glass bottle. That should make things a lot easier to collect the blood and save Iyrilia. And just in time, too. By the time the funnel has taken its place into the glass bottle, the clouds start forming bolts of black lightning and begin its bloody rain. The funnel is collecting all the blood and storing it inside. Figment’s plan is working perfectly! Ah, the powers of what imagination can do.

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From where the capsule sits, Crizwalke watches the dragon using his imagination to save the city. Angered, he throws his fists in the air ranting at Figment’s almost certain victory.

“No!” Crizwalke shouted. “You’re ruining everything I worked for!”

“CRIZWALKE!” a booming voice roared through the air.

It was Álvaro flying down from the vortex to the mountaintop. The look on his crinkled face expresses his anger towards Crizwalke. Like a comet, the winged Katkin darts down at the governor and grabs him by the neck.

“You…” Álvaro growled.

“Álvaro!” Crizwalke gasped.

“You caused all this mayhem. You have harmed and slaughtered so many lives. You have awakened the darkest prophecy in the history of our civilization. You…must…pay.”

“Listen… Álvaro. C-Can’t we talk about this? Nngh! Leader to leader?”

“WHAT KIND OF LEADER PUT HIS OWNS PEOPLE IN FRONT OF HIM AND INTO JEOPARDY FOR HIS OWN SAFETY AND AMUSEMENT?!” Álvaro roared.

At this time, Alex, Dreamfinder and Rachel finally arrive at the top of the mountain and out of the dust storm with the drone where they find Álvaro and Crizwalke posed in an excruciatingly intense moment. Hanging by the neck in his body Crizwalke tries to gasp in air, but Álvaro’s grip tightens greatly by the second.

 

This is it, the moment where Álvaro finally puts a stop to Crizwalke’s antics once and for all. The moment where Crizwalke is finally enforced to pay the price for his crimes. It all ends here right now.

 

“Wait. Where’s Figment?” Dreamfinder asked.

“He’s up there!” Rachel said. “Look!”

Out of all things dark and frightening forming together in the sky other than the giant orange funnel, only one little purple dot remains visible to its friends’ eyes. Figment alone is holding up the clouds while all the blood is falling into the funnel to the bottle. Imagine the blood of thousands of people as big as a lake at least falling and draping down on the sides of the bottle like red drops of paint cascading down on a canvas.

“Oh my God…” Rachel quivered.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Dreamfinder moaned, trying his best not to throw up.

“Ditto.”

“Walker Crizwalke…” Álvaro begins.

“Oh boy, here it comes.” Alex quivers into a shrug.

“You have abused the powers of the position for which you have been placed as well allowing the darkest moment in our history repeat itself. The destruction and countless crimes you have committed have become far beyond unforgivable. And now the time has come for you to pay the price for all the immoral atrocities you have caused.”

“No! No, please!” Crizwalke cried.

“Prepare to-”

“WAIT!” Rachel shrieked.

Álvaro, shocked by the outburst, turns his head toward Rachel. He did not expect anyone to come across his judgments and verdicts before. This is all new to him.

“Milady.” Álvaro spoke. “For what reason have you to shriek?”

“Yeah, Rachel. What’s the deal?” Alex asked. “You know what he’s done.”

“Rachel? What’s wrong?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I…” Rachel paused. “I know Crizwalke’s actions have been terrible for the past ten years and…and perhaps he does deserve what you plan on doing to him for all that. But…surely…there’s got to be another way. A more kinder way to deal with him, maybe?”

“Rachel, in more ways than one you are very noble for such a thought.” said Álvaro. “But I’m afraid this matter had to be done in this manner. Believe me, I have tried to find ways to better the judgment in the past, but there is none in the concept of mercy. Forgive me.”

Rachel then looked toward Dreamfinder and he sadly said, “It’s…it’s for his own good, Rachel.”

She looked back towards Crizwalke’s scared face. Sympathy has filled her heart that very moment. Though she has been very angry for what Crizwalke had done to her, Ron and everyone else who had fallen dead to his dictatorship, she could not find it in herself to see another man fall despite his cruelty. But for once in her life there is nothing she can do to stop this. The madness has to stop with madness.

“Okay.” Rachel began to tear up. She turns away from everyone and says, “But I can’t watch this.”

“I’m sorry, Rachel.” Dreamfinder said with a pat on her shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m sorry too.” said Crizwalke oddly. “For you being such a sap for me.”

“RACHEL!” Dreamfinder shrieks as he pulls Rachel into his arms.

No one but Álvaro and Alex was able to hear the clicking sound of a gun loading in one of Crizwalke’s hands in secret. He quickly aims the gun at Rachel’s head and shoots, but Álvaro had quickly redirected the gun towards the sky before the bullet had reached outside. The sound of gunfire blasted into the air ringing everyone’s ears. The adrenaline rose sharply in Rachel’s nervous system. Shocked by the shot, she quickly turns around and finds Crizwalke hanging by the neck in Álvaro’s hand and holding the gun. Dreamfinder, also shocked by the outcome, holds onto Rachel tightly, fearing what would have happened if Rachel had taken the bullet in her head. She breathes hastily with short breaths. She almost got shot to death!

Seething with rage inside, Álvaro grabs the gun from Crizwalke and crushes it in own hands into a wrecked ball of metal. He tightens his grips onto Crizwalke’s neck and flies off the side of the mountain.

“No! No!” Crizwalke yells.

“I’ve had about enough of you, your pathetic existence and your cruel murderous hand. You will now face and accept your punishment and forever be damned for eternity!”

Álvaro, now holding Crizwalke’s neck with both hands, starts diving down towards Iyra City leaving Rachel, Dreamfinder and Alex at the mountaintop. Crizwalke’s screams can be heard from miles around including up at the sky where Figment is.

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Figment can hear Crizwalke screaming as he and Álvaro are plummeting down through the air towards the city. This is not a pretty sight. But to make matters worse, the glass is nearly half full and more blood is pouring out of the clouds and into the funnel. He can only keep the clouds in place long enough for the madness to be over. The question is how soon will it be over.

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It’s hard to tell how close or how far Álvaro and Crizwalke are from hitting the ground in Iyra City. And it’s hopeful that everyone in the city has evacuated in time before it happens. For a godly being to strike the ground so hard could become catastrophic even for the godly being to get itself hurt in the process. 

Alex and his friends rush over to the side of the cliff overlooking what’s happening. They couldn’t tell, but Álvaro and Crizwalke are almost a quarter of the way from the top of the mountain. Alex tries to look closer to see if he can still see them shooting downward. Suddenly, the Katkin’s foot slips down the side of the cliff and falls off the mountain. Dreamfinder lets go of Rachel and grabs Alex by his shirt, but Alex’s shirt gets pulled off by accident and now Alex’s body is now helplessly falling toward the city.

“ALEX!” Dreamfinder screamed.

“Oh s***! ALEX!” Rachel screams also.

“No!”

“Oh snap! First Ron and now Alex. We’ve got to save him!”

But just as Dreamfinder was about to say another word, the ground on the cliff side had crumbled at their feet. Dreamfinder and Rachel both fall off the mountain together screaming in terror. It looks like the end for them both. Dreamfinder clings onto Rachel facing his back against the city below them. If they must break down onto the ground when they reach the city, he wants to be the first to take it. Not Rachel. 

Abruptly, something soft and airy breaks their fall. Below them is a blue surface with golden rings. The surface they sit on feels a lot like a balloon. It is a balloon! And only Dreamfinder would know whose balloon it belongs to: The Dream Machine! It’s all built back into its former glory with not a single scratch! But who is flying it? Dreamfinder grabs onto Rachel’s waist with one arm, one of the cables that helps hold the balloon in his other hand and carefully inches down to the pilot’s seat. And whom do they find down there?

Howard Fitz, their host from the house outside the city and Croc, the anthropomorphic crocodile who helped Dreamfinder and the others escape from the city and catch the gondola earlier today! Fitz is controlling the Dream Machine while Croc has his own gun-like weapon to fend off any bad characters from attacking.

“What’s a ‘Dreamfinder’ without his Dream Machine?” Fitz calls out.

“Howard!” Dreamfinder exclaims with delight.

“It took you long enough to fix this thing!” Rachel shouted with relief. “Not that I was impatient or anything.”

“Well if it weren’t for your crocodile friend here,” Fitz informed, “I wouldn’t have gotten this finished a lot quicker.”

“Yo! How you guys doing, man?” Croc delightfully greeted.

“Croc! You’re okay!” Dreamfinder shouted.

“Of course I’m okay. After I lost my battle against Crizwalke and his robo dude, I started trailing towards this dude’s house for help. It’s a good thing he knows you or would be in deep dog food! You guys okay?”

“We’re okay, but Alex isn’t!” Rachel shouted in panic. “He’s falling down there by himself with Álvaro and Crizwalke already plunging down to the city!”

“Then there’s nothing we can do.” Fitz said. “He already too close to Álvaro to save him. By the time we save Alex, he will have already put Crizwalke down and we’d all be destroyed together!”

“Poor Alex…”

“Where’s Ron?”

“He became Crizwalke’s 50,000th victim.” Dreamfinder said regretfully. “He is what is causing all this.”

“Not the nerdy Katkin kid who shredded the banner!” Croc exclaimed.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Poor dude.”

“His body is still up at the mountaintop.” Rachel said. “We have to go back and get it.”

“Not a problem!” Fitz agreed. “Hang on!”

“Everyone! Start using your imagination!” Dreamfinder orders. "It's much quicker this way."

“Say what?” Croc said in confusion.

“Trust me, bro. Just do it.” Rachel said. “It’s what powers this airship.”

“An airship that runs on imagination? Awesome!”

Fitz sets the controls for the Dream Machine to rise higher. With everyone’s imaginations operating in their minds, the Dream Machine is gaining more and more dream power. They dodge through the sea of floating rocks being pulled and pushed away by the vortex above them. One or two of the large stones crash onto the lower half of the Dream Machine causing it to be briefly pushed to the side until it maintains balance again.

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Alex, now shirtless, falls faster and faster towards his own doom. His own hope is to either catch up to Álvaro and grab onto him or catch one of the floating rocks and hopefully get blown away to safety. His second choice isn’t going as good as he thought. The boulders are far too fast for Alex to catch. At this point, it’s all downhill from there. Soon he will join his brother in death in hopes that whatever else would come at them would be a lot better than what’s happening in Iyrilia.

Incredibly, however, he’s managed to catch up towards where Álvaro and Crizwalke are now! They’re just about a quarter of the way from splattering into the city like a pancake. Álvaro’s rage against Crizwalke is keeping him in focus in putting the governor out of everybody else’s miseries. There’s no way his focus could be broken by anything outside of it. Still, Alex tries shouting at him to get his attention. He calls Álvaro’s name so many times until finally, Álvaro’s focus snaps at the sound of Alex’s voice.

“ÁLVARO!” Alex shouts.

“Alexander!” Álvaro shouts in his mental telepathy. “What are you doing falling down?”

“Oh, I just wanted to drop in and enjoy the fun that’s about to happen.” Alex sassed. “I accidentally slipped off of the cliff from the mountaintop!”

“Come closer if you can and grab onto my back, Alexander! And cover your eyes!”

Alex then dives down toward Álvaro dodging every boulder that came his way. He grabs onto Álvaro and clings onto him tightly. At least something will break his fall once they hit the ground. Alex then buries his eyes onto the winged Katkin’s back and begins to pray in his mind. Anything is better than all of this.

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“Nnngh! I don’t know…how long I can…keep this up!” Figment said to himself. 

He’s beginning to feel exhausted from corralling the clouds into its place while all the blood floods the giant glass bottle. His wings are reducing speed, his panting is increasing and his accuracy is beginning to deplete. The bottle is now three quarters full. His mind has become too weak to imagine another giant bottle to appear. If nothing is getting done fast, Iyrilia is doomed!

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Finally, they reach back up to the mountaintop where they find Crizwalke’s full proof shield capsule with Ron still inside it. Dreamfinder and Croc jump out of the Dream Machine and ran straight for it. They each grabbed onto each side of the capsule and carry it back towards the Dream Machine.

“Come on!” Rachel shouts. “Hurry!”

Dreamfinder jumps back onboard the Dream Machine first with Croc right behind him. Then Fitz lifts the Dream Machine off the mountain before the ground cover has crumbled completely! The dust storm that formed here must have blown away the supporting rock that formed mountaintop itself. Thankfully, Dreamfinder and Croc managed to hop aboard safely before they both started falling again.

“Let’s get him inside the cabin!” Dreamfinder suggested with his voice high in volume against the roaring wind. “He’ll be safe in there!”

They bring Ron back inside one of the cabin rooms as Fitz flies the Dream Machine far away from the mountain.

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The likely target for Álvaro and Alex to plunge Crizwalke down to is the Iyrilian Tower, the main source of all of Crizwalke’s schemes and dictatorships that were held all those ten years. Crizwalke tries to kick Álvaro on his torso and biting onto the Katkin’s hand, but it was no use. There is no way out of this phenomenon this time. It’s the end of Crizwalke. He screams his lungs out in terror. He doesn’t want this to happen anymore. But it will only stop when Álvaro ends it.

With Álvaro’s magic, the tower’s materials have all separated and begin spiraling into its own vortex. A portal opens before them where blue and orange fire bursts out at the bottom of the tower. They all shoot through the portal faster than light like a meteor. Alex’s face faces against Álvaro’s back in fear. Along the way, terrible shrieks are heard all around them. Alex could not dare himself to see what was happening now. This trauma is already affecting him badly enough.

Crizwalke is now at the mercy of the bottom of the tower. As Álvaro carries him closer and closer, he begins to wonder about what Rachel had said about mercy earlier. He looks at Crizwalke’s mortified face and says to him, “I wish there was a better way to end you and all my opponents. I’m sorry.”

When Crizwalke’s back finally touches the wall of the portal the bottom of the tower, an explosion came about and shot a great beam of light towards the sky!

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The blood is just reaching the limit of the bottle. Below Figment, he hears the explosion and watches the beacon coming up right towards him and the clouds! The young dragon stops is swirling around the clouds and flees the scene.

“Yipe!” Figment screams.

With Figment now gone away from the dark clouds of blood, the light beacon shoots at them and creates another explosion!

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The light illuminated throughout the world of Iyrilia, blinding all who are watching it happen. Everyone aboard the Dream Machine cover their eyes tightly. Rachel holds onto Dreamfinder tightly, while Fitz and Croc cover their own eyes.

The beacon of light wraps around the dark clouds and shoots one last bolt of lightning. This time, the lightning is shot at the blood collected in Figment bottle and turns the color from dark red to clear and transparent. Water! The glass bottle then breaks down and the newly cleansed water washes over the city extinguishing all the fires made onto the building and drowning away all of Crizwalke’s robots.

At last there was silence. The clouds have all turned white and separated into smaller clouds scattering across the newly blued sky. Crizwalke is gone and his reign of terror has finally ended. 

Everyone on the Dream Machine have opened their eyes and cheered with great relief. Iyrilia is saved for good!

 

“It’s over…” Howard Fitz said. “It’s finally over…”


	20. Chapter 20

The dark prophecy that has haunted Iyrilia for centuries has at last been lifted. With Crizwalke gone along with his crimes put to rest for good, the time for peace in the country can now begin.

The storm has calmed down its thunderous drumming and flashing lightning. The clouds have been cleansed into a white puffiness as the leftovers of the wasted blood begin to evaporate. The sky has been revealed in its natural blue color with the sun shining down its rays onto the surface ground. It enlightens the lush grass as it softly sways across the meadows. Beside them are the streams fully replenished with its surplus of water that has now been thoroughly decontaminated of the wasted blood. The rushing of this new water has doused the fires and dirt that had engulfed the city for the better from perpetual ruin. But with Álvaro banishing Crizwalke to his eternal prison, the likeliness of Iyra City still remaining intact after all this cause is very slim.

The Dream Machines floats across the sky at this moment. Far across from them, a purple dot comes flying toward the crew on board. It is obvious of Dreamfinder to recognize who and what that purple dot is in the distance. Figment, who could not wait another second to reunite with his friends, races toward the Dream Machine in a great frenzy. Dreamfinder lets go of his grip onto Rachel and waves frantically for Figment to see. The dragon zips straight to his creator and greets him a tight, yet very relieving, hug.

“We did it!” Figment cheered. “We saved Iyrilia!”

“We all did, Figment!” Dreamfinder smiled. “We all did.”

“Well…most of it.” Howard Fitz said.

As Howard lowers the Dream Machine to the ground, they all catch a glimpse of what is left of this great city. It is anything but refined. The entire city has fallen together into a perfectly fit crater. The aftereffects of Álvaro’s plunge completely destroyed the city to the ground. The towers and skyscrapers were torn down half-sized, the streets have turned into layers and layers of dirt ground, broken roads and debris, and whatever smoke was left from the fires overshadows the lower half of the city. There is no sign of life anywhere so far.

“Whoa…” Rachel and Croc both said in deep tones.

“Unbelievable!” said Dreamfinder.

“Man…our home…” Croc pauses.

“It’s all gone.” Rachel sighed, as she secretly took a picture with her camera. “Everything!”

“Well, on the bright side,” Figment intervenes while trying to share a little cheer into the group, “the city can be rebuilt in whatever design it wants once everything gets cleaned up.”

“If there are still people left.” Rachel pointed out.

Finally touching the ground, Howard turns off the Dream Machine. Everyone gets off the ship immediately happily planting their feet onto the grassy floor. The soft breeze gently blows onto everyone’s faces in its cooling warmness. Along the wind comes Dreamfinder’s top hat lost in the airiness after struggling through the harsh dusty lightning storms. Reaching out his arm, Dreamfinder catches his hat into his hand and places it back onto his head. He allows his flying to rest in his arms for a while. Flying around a vortex from hurting the civilians has been a tough job to tackle.

“Wait a minute.” Figment interrupted. “Where’s Alex?”

Dreamfinder gave a gloomy look to his best friend in sorrow. He sighs and takes off his hat in respect feeling the need to cry. He was too late to grab him away from harm…too late to save him.

“He’s…he’s gone, Figment.” said Dreamfinder in a sad tone. “Alex Wavers is no more.”

“He slipped off the top of the mountain to his death.” Rachel clarified. “I guess that makes both brothers gone now.”

“Aww…” Figment moans.

“Yo guys, look! Up there!” Croc calls out pointing up to the heavens.

The group turns their attention to the sky and watched in shock at what is coming at them. Coming down from the clouds, the winged Katkin Álvaro’s silhouette blackens as the sun shines behind him. He had completed his mission in taking out Crizwalke and saving his people from total destruction unharmed. He soars down through the air like a falling incoming rocket ready to feet foot onto the land again. There is something on his back as he darts his way back. Another Katkin is holding onto him tightly, a Katkin boy whom everyone in the group knows very well.

“It’s Álvaro!” Rachel exclaimed.

“And Alex!” Dreamfinder happily perks up at the sight. “He’s alive!”

“Yay!” Figment cheers.

“Aw yeah!” Croc also cheers as he thrusts his fists into the air. “WOO! WOO! WOO! WOOOOO!”

“Thank goodness!” Howard sighs in relief.

Figment flies out of Dreamfinder’s arms to greet Álvaro and Alex. He twirls in a circle around the two Katkins as they land safely back onto the ground. Dreamfinder and Rachel come charging towards them happily and full of excitement with their feet trudging onto the freshly lit up grass as they run. Alex jumps off of Álvaro and falls into both Dreamfinder and Figment’s arms and they hug him tightly enough for him to lose his breath. Álvaro grabs a hold onto Rachel’s torso and swings her around across the air. He too gives Rachel a steady hug and kisses her on her forehead. Rachel blushes and giggles gaily with her head down in contented embarrassment. She returns a hug to Álvaro as well as a kiss on his cheek. He sets Rachel down as Rachel heads over to Alex and hugs him with comfort, while Figment gives Álvaro a friendly hug and Dreamfinder a firm appreciative handshake. Two more persons join in on the merriment. Howard and Croc, each awed by the sight of Álvaro standing here in person before them, kneeled before him in respectful worship. Of course Álvaro takes pride in his people’s praise and gratitude.

“Rachel. And all my friends.” Álvaro expresses lively. “I am so happy you all are safe.”

“We have you to thank for that.” Dreamfinder pointed out.

“No. It is I who must thank you all. Especially to Rachel, whose cries have reached my ears thoroughly and awoken me from my slumber.”

“Well…” Rachel blushes. “You only fall from a thousand foot tower once in a blue moon and well…I’m happy to help.”

“Alex! You’re okay!” Figment said happily.

“Of course I’m alright!” Alex laughed. He gives a thumbs-up and says, “All Katkins manage to land on their own feet after a fall.”

“Thank goodness!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “Here is your shirt, Alex.” He hands the red shirt he pulled off by accident at the fall on the mountain back to Alex, who puts in on to his satisfaction.

“Hey guys!” Croc called. “Check this out!”

Everyone gathers behind Croc where they see the fully destroyed city of Iyrilia. As described the city is in total ruin. Though he did not craft the city himself, Álvaro’s lips quiver at the horrific sight of his crumbled civilization and on top of them his people. He clutches his heart feeling the pain ripping his heart into two. He lets go of Rachel and walks toward the center of the city alone. Behind him unbeknownst to himself Rachel, Dreamfinder, Figment and their friends follow behind him.

This city has become unlike how Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel first approached it when they first arrived in Iyrilia. When they came, the city was glistening with silver steel in the sunlight. Now every building they pass by are rusted, melted or torn to pieces by the dark prophecy’s aftermath. The smoke from the doused fires continued to spread through the air like a plague. Vehicles from cars to trucks have all been turned over by the brute force beforehand. Some fire hydrants on the cracked and broken sidewalks broke off and shot water out of the ground like geysers in Yellowstone Park. Álvaro then spotted the center of Iyra City where his golden statue self once stood atop the marble pillar all broken down into small pebbles. Along with it, he finds some bodies lying dead from their battle with the robots police. Even some broken parts of the robot police were present as well. Álvaro’s head hung heavily downward. His only comfort came to him when Rachel took his hand softly. He then shed a tear. While Álvaro had defeated Crizwalke, he also brought decimation to his own people. Was this really all worth it, he thought to himself? Perhaps not.

But before he was able to confirm that, he hears a rumbling and crackling of rubble being moved from the distance. Everyone knows that debris does not move by itself. Someone is underneath the rubble trying to get out! Álvaro jerked his head back up and watched the surface for any movement. Not far away from him he spotted a turned-over car sitting beside a couple broken steel beams that sat on top of a bruised metal sheet. Grabbing Rachel by her torso with his arm, Álvaro swiftly flies over to the broken beams and finds that they are moving actively. Someone must be pounding at the thing from underneath! He puts Rachel back down and starts lifting away the heavy objects. Rachel signals her friends to come over and help and they did. Everyone takes a piece of rubble and tosses it aside. 

When they cleared away the metal, they find a crowded subway-like entrance leading underground to the secret tunnels. Shocked at the sight, Álvaro stood still. Survivors of his people are alive and well! They must have hidden underneath the ground for protection against his wrath on Crizwalke. They are all dirtied and bruised from their actions with Crizwalke’s now broken robots who, thanks to Álvaro, have lost their battle. The people standing down there begin struggling out of the tunnel entrance. They send their children up first. Among those children came a little girl reaching for someone’s hands to grab her out. Álvaro snapped out of his shock and pulls the little girl out and into his arms.

The girl is very young, probably six or seven-years-old. Her long blackened red hair draped down her back and over her ears. Her small blue eyes looked up into Álvaro’s glowing yellow pupils. At the sight, she began to feel warm and happy. In fact, she recognizes the winged Katkin’s face and smiles. Álvaro could not help but smile back at the little girl. Seeing children smile and laugh is one of the prides and joys of his immortal life.

“What is your name?” Álvaro asked the little girl.

“Sarah.” Sarah replied. “You’re Álvaro, are you?”

“Yes.”

“This is for you.” Sarah hands to Álvaro a fistful of flowers.

Each one of those flowers is colored differently and has bloomed beautifully. The stems of those flowers aren’t even cut out. Their roots dangled down below as some of the leftover dirt dropped to the ground.

“You…you carried these all this way to the underground?” Álvaro asked with surprise.

“I wanted to give these to you when I saw you rescue that girl.” Sarah said referring to Rachel. “But when the city was falling and those robots attacked, I was afraid that there would be no more flowers blooming when it was over. So I took some and saved them here for you.”

Such pure innocence Álvaro had found in this girl. He begins to shame himself for ever proclaiming such a terrible prophecy in the beginning. He takes the flowers gladly and sticks one of them into Sarah’s hair. And then he presses his head onto hers and purrs mildly to which she giggles.

“They’re beautiful, Sarah.” said Álvaro. “We’ll plant these together when the city is rebuilt.”

He then gives Sarah a hug. Immense warmth began to build up inside each of them. It even became contagious enough to spread over to the Katkin’s friends.

Rachel sniffed. Her eyes began to tear up at the sight. Little children are the most innocent begins ever created, that much she knew already. Right here in front her is proof. She takes out her camera and takes a picture of Álvaro holding onto Sarah as she gives him the flowers. Neither one of them paid any attention to Rachel doing this, but that was okay with her. When the picture printed and dries up, she puts it away in her pocket along with her camera.

“Rachel?” Dreamfinder hears Rachel sniffle. He leaned forward beside her and trying to see her face. “Are you crying?”

“No!” Rachel sniffed. “My eyes are just sweating. Let’s get these guys out of there.”

Everyone contributes their strengths together pulling out ever citizen they could carry out. Those people who still had enough strength in their muscles as well as their hearts began to spread out across the broken city and find more openings for everyone to step out. Soon five to ten openings have been found. In a half hour, everyone in the city joined together with Álvaro and the group.

The sight of Álvaro’s people still alive despite all that had occurred lifted his spirits. Each one of them, human and anthropomorphic animal alike, man, woman and child, working together and standing tall as one has been defined as a strong community.

“Wowie-wow-wow!” Figment exclaims. “Everyone’s all here!”

“Not everyone.” Howard spoke solemnly.

Howard points out to where Alex had been standing alone away from the crowd. The Katkin’s fur slightly blew with the wind behind him. While his friends were helping the citizens out of the tunnels, he spotted something across the way from the central hub of the city. Alex heads over to that certain object and he finds a pair of broken glasses sitting below him. Ron’s glasses. He can tell it was Ron’s by the dark shade color of green Ron likes and the tiny inscription of his name engraved inside one of the temples. Alex picks up the glasses in a tremble. Remembering the fond memories he has had with Ron from when they escaped the orphanage as younger Katkin children to their foolish comedic antics all the way to the end of Ron’s life made him want to burst into tears and scream. His older brother is gone forever and this pair of glasses is all that is left of him. 

But then a warmness came upon Alex’s shoulder. He finds Dreamfinder’s hand gently patted onto him with sympathy. The look on Dreamfinder’s face is filled with gloom. His eyes met with Alex’s as his eyelids became heavy. To lose a family member and a friend has left them both destroyed to the core. Dreamfinder kneels down to Alex’s height and hugs him tightly. Tis the season to be giving hugs.

“Alex, I’m so sorry.” Dreamfinder said. “Hey you know, we saved Ron’s body back in the Dream Machine. What say we have a proper funeral for him?”

“I don’t want a funeral for Ron.” Alex cried in Dreamfinder’s shoulder. “I just want him back!” He grasps Ron’s glasses firmly with each passing tear streaming down his furry cheeks.

“We all do. But I don’t think any force in this world can bring him back.”

“What about dream power?”

“I…no. I don’t so. I’m not sure even dream power can help this cause. I am so, so sorry, Alex. Truly, I am.”

Behind Dreamfinder comes Figment fluttering beside them. Then Rachel and then Howard. And even Croc came to join the crowd. He only knew Ron for a mere half hour starting with watching Ron tearing a Crizwalke banner and yet he was able to feel deeply for Alex’s loss. All of their arms wrapped around Alex into one big huddle. 

Alex’s mind has then succumbed into a blankness as his head slid down and lay against Dreamfinder’s chest. The only thing that appeared in his imagination is Ron. Seeing him at the front, Alex could not hold back his tears any longer. He started running toward his brother for his embrace. He reached out his arms for Ron to grab. And as their hands touched, a light illuminated brightly forcing everything in his unconsciousness to turn white and then into many different bright colors. The light burst into the air and came out of Alex in the form of his tears.

The Katkin’s tears fell to the ground. As they hit the ground, they begin to glow. It spread out outside the group and covered every piece of material left in Iyra City. Dreamfinder looks down below Alex and takes the first notice of this occurrence. He taps onto Alex and signals him to look down. The ground underneath the crowd is turning light blue, then green, then all yellow orange-ish. Everyone in the group gasps. They tore themselves apart from the huddle to get a better view of this phenomenon. The wave of colors spread out to as far as the city limits covering everything it touches along the way. The materials on the ground levitated themselves and started putting themselves together. Everything from broken wood and stone, leftover robots parts, scraped metals, broken glass and sheets of papers flew above the citizens and headed straight to their destined areas. They built up new parks, houses, cars, and skyscrapers and restored many restaurants, transit areas, social centers, schools and political structures alike. Some of which took the form of some different animals since the anthropomorphic-animals tribes first claimed the land long ago. Even the streets are newly paved again. No more potholes! Everything in Iyra City is reverting back to how it originally was, but with a much bigger addition. Instead of just silver structures, the buildings have all been changed into many different colors as well as the beams being made from gold, silver and bronze. Newer buildings and contraptions formed before everyone’s eyes. Many of which only Alex would recognize.

“My…my inventions!” Alex gasps.

“What’s happening here?” Rachel asked.

“Everything is returning to their previous estates as it once was.” said Álvaro. “Along with that, new additions to the city are appearing before. Hopefully, for the better.”

“I was only thinking of being with Ron again,” Alex spoke, “and then this…started.”

“It’s dream power on the go!” Figment cheered.

“Emotional apprehensions made into matter manifestation!” Dreamfinder realized. “Brilliant!”

“Far out!” Croc exclaims.

“Incredible!” said Howard. “I knew Alex always had such a bright mind, but this tops it off!”

The people of Iyra City awed at the sight of their home city being rebuilt into a new form. The dream power forming from Alex’s mind rises higher and higher until the Iyrilian Tower has been newly restored and improved into the glory it had always been, perhaps even better. The last of the dream power magic reached up to the top of the Twisted Peek Mountain and formed a new rock to replace the broken tip that had been dusted away from the storm clouds in the high altitude. 

Right below Álvaro and Sarah a new plain of grass grew at their feet. Álvaro kneels down to the ground and puts Sarah down. Everyone watches as Álvaro digs a small hole in the dirt. Sarah puts the roots of the flowers into the hole and shoves the dirt back to its place. The dirt covers the roots and the flowers and now planted back into the Iyrilian soil. Smiles upon everybody’s faces lit up in the act of the flowers blooming once again in the sunrays that had sewn through the open gaps of the mountain.

Dreamfinder remained at Alex’s side throughout the event. It is such a sight to see. The energy of dreams sparking at every corner of the city beautifying it with its marvelous power has made vast improvements of community structures. It’s a wonder how minds create creations. Though it is not hard to figure out. Alex sheds another tear down his face. This time it is a tear of joy, not of pain.

“It’s the dawn of a new era for Iyrilia.” Alex said with his eyes still fixed at the renovated city.

“Hm?” Dreamfinder hummed.

“We always dreamed of making our home a better place together. When our parents died, Ron and I vowed to work hard in school and learn what he could do to change Iyra City for the better so that no one would have to face the same fates again, safe and peaceful. This utopia is what we both envisioned and more.”

“No doubt this is what he would have wanted.”

“No doubt at all.”

“Alexander.”

Álvaro steps up to Alex and Dreamfinder with Sarah still in his arms. Rachel and Figment walk up behind Dreamfinder just as Howard and Croc walk up behind Alex. The winged Katkin smiles at the young Alex standing before him. He saved the city and his people from destruction. Without Alex, it is difficult to see what Iyrilia would have truly been.

“My dear Alexander,” Álvaro speaks, “when I moved my people to this great land thousands of years ago, all I had ever wanted for them was to live prosperously and freely together. But then during my absence, a sheet of darkness had blanketed over them and transformed it to what it had just previously been. You heroism has saved our people from its darkest hours. Your ingenuity, your bravery, your faith and your purity has changed the face of this mighty nation into what you have contemplated all your life. This grand and beautiful world is now made to your credentials.” He then swoops up to the air for everyone to see, speaks loudly for all to hear, and says, “Let it be known to the city and beyond that on this day and forever more…in honor of the this young Katkin’s dream and vision for his homeland and to Ronaldo Waver’s passing and memory the Twisted Peek Mountain shall be renamed to Alexander Heights and the plains outside the outside the mountain shall now be named Ronaldo Valley!"

The city cheers to Álvaro’s proclamation. Alex’s jaw drops in shock. The reaction to this has knocked his senses off the ground. Dreamfinder and Howard pick up Alex together onto their shoulders as Alex throws his fists in the air with victory in his heart. This is the proudest moment in his life!

********************************************************************************************************

The funeral for Ron Wavers had taken place just outside of Howard Fitz’s little village spot. Everyone in the city had all gathered around wearing black for the occasion. Of course, Ron’s family and friends would be sitting closest to Ron’s new resting place. The Dream Machine had pulled up beside Howard’s house where Dreamfinder, Figment, Howard and Croc, dressed in black altogether, carried Ron’s shield-like coffin out of the cabin area. Rachel, Alex and Álvaro stood side by side as they watched Ron’s casket begin to lower into the dirt ground that had been dug up deeply to contain him in. Alex had taken one more long lasting look at his deceased brother and places a hand onto the window that showed Ron’s face.

“Thank you, Ron.” Alex whispered. “For believing in me…and for being my brother.”

The roses he, Dreamfinder, Figment, Rachel, Howard, Croc and Álvaro have individually held throughout the ceremony have been gently placed upon Ron’s casket. Then more roses are being thrown to the casket as it lowers down into the dark dirt hole. Figment, sniffling through his runny nose in grief and holding a handkerchief, leans closer to Dreamfinder’s side as he held Rachel, who is at the verge of shedding tears, at the other.

When Ron’s body had finally reached the bottom, they each take turns holding a shovel and shoveling a patch of dirt into the hole. When they finished, the local gravediggers finished off the burial. Ron’s body is now at peace. A plaque has been placed before the burial saying: 

 

He envisioned a better world  
He loved to learn  
He died for us all  
He was our friend and brother  
Ronaldo James Wavers

 

********************************************************************************************************

“Are you sure you have to go?” Howard asked Alex.

Everyone who had attended the funeral, which is practically the entire city itself, gathered together to see Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel fly away in farewell from Iyrilia. But they will not be going on alone.

“There is no place for me to settle here for now.” said Alex. “Crizwalke is gone at last, but without Ron I feel out of place in this world. He always believed I could attend a college undeniably. Still, my permanent record and criminal record is what will prevent me from attending any college here in Iyrilia. Plus, I have far too many memories of Ron and I doing what we have always done it just keeps lingering in me and causing me more pain. That’s why I have to go with Dreamfinder and the others to Earth and begin my education at last. Start all over again.”

“I will miss you a tons worth, kiddo. I’ve always considered you and Ron as sons of my own when your father and mother died. I am very proud to have known you both and watch you grow.”

“Don’t worry, Howard. I’ll be back as soon as I graduate. And when I do, I’ll have them bring me home and start anew.”

“I know you will. And we’ll all be waiting here for you. I promise we’ll celebrate your graduation when you get back.”

They each exchange a hug, the last step in sharing a fond farewell. They end it when Dreamfinder, back in his regular clothes and cleaned up well, walks up beside Alex and extends his hand to Howard for a handshake.

“You best take care of Alex now, you hear?” Howard said firmly.

“I will. I’ll see to it he gets to Earth safely and receives an education. The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus is the perfect place for him to begin his studies.”

“And suppose they reject him?”

“Oh, they won’t. I assure you.”

“Well nevertheless, if you are ever around here again in Iyrilia and in need of a place to crash for a night or two, you are always welcome in my home.”

“I appreciate that very much. Thank you for your help in repairing the Dream Machine and for your hospitality.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Dreamfinder.” Howard smiles as he shakes Dreamfinder’s hand. “Just do me one favor.”

“What?” Dreamfinder asks.

“I said you could crash here whenever you want. Just don’t crash the Dream Machine again in the process.”

“Ha ha! Don’t worry.” Dreamfinder laughs. “I don’t think the Dream Machine will be getting anymore dents for a long while thanks to your handiwork. And I will most definitely be alert on how to land this baby properly.”

“See that you do.”

Meanwhile in another group, Álvaro, Figment and Rachel all say their goodbyes to each other. Three friends who may not have started a new friendship in the most polite manner possible have still gotten the chance to bond together despite their differences.

“I really must thank you both and to your Dreamfinder for all of your help in saving my people and Iyrilia from peril.” said Álvaro. “I am forever in your debts.”

“It was our pleasure to help out as well as an honor, Álvaro.” Rachel said.

“It really is!” Figment smiled. “And it’s been a lot of fun saving this world together with you. We should do it again sometime! That is, if you trust me well enough now.”

“I have fought and slain almost a hundred dragons and terrifying beasts in my time before all this had been created.” Álvaro admits. “And until today, I had shown my hatred towards them all while also blinding myself from seeing the truest nature in a good many of them. I suppose that not all dragons are terrible after all.”

“Aw shucks! That means a lot coming from you. Friends?”

“Of course. And Rachel.” Álvaro picks Rachel up by her torso again, kisses her forehead and says, “Of all of you and your ‘acquaintances,’ I believe I am in your debt most of all. Somehow, you have saved me from my damned eternal slumber even though the situation in Iyrilia was very much dire. Now I am free to live again and watch and protect my people as I had once done 50,000 years ago.”

“Happy to help anytime, Álvaro.” Rachel blushed a smile. “I guess my acquaintances are more like friends now that I see what real good they have done for me. It’s been great serving you in this cause and knowing your history. No god other than my own back on Earth has ever given me such kindness before.”

“You know, the offer still stands. I would love it more than anything in the world if you would reconsider in staying here forever and become my bride and queen.”

“Again Álvaro, I am very much honored and a little embarrassed by the way you worded out your proposal and looking deep into my eyes…in a good way, of course! But I’m afraid I must decline your generous offer once again. My place isn’t here. It’s with so many different imaginative realms throughout the universe alongside Dreamfinder and Figment. I can’t leave them and I’m sure they won’t leave any place without me. But I’ll say this, despite everything that has happened today and despite me rejecting your proposal, you have my love always. Mostly as a friend and ally.”

“Suppose no man wishes to claim you for his own in the future?”

“We’ll see. Just don’t wait up for me until I come back and tell you myself.”

“I will be fair to your decision.” Álvaro then kisses her forehead again, presses his head onto Rachel’s once more and purrs. He speaks in his telepathy saying, “If you are ever in great peril, should you ever need my help, I will come. Summon me with your mind and heart and I join you as soon as possible.”

“Thanks Álvaro.” Rachel smiled. “I will.”

They give each other their last hug along with Figment joining into the huddle. It’s the last they’ll ever have for a long while.

“There’s one thing we’ve got to do first.” Rachel said as she takes out her camera. She calls out to everyone, “Hey guys, can we get one last photo together before we go?”

“Of course!” Howard replies. “Think you can make a few copies for a few of us?”

“Like I won’t!”

The group starts gathering together to pose for the camera. Rachel gets someone to take the photo of everyone. The person clicks onto the clicker four times: one for Álvaro, one for Howard, one for Rachel's log, and one for the city’s library so that they would remember the heroic deeds that had occurred today.

“WAIT! WAIT!”

But then, someone wails from a distance. Coming towards them is Mr. Hamm with a couple greasy bags and a tray of drinks. His head is sweating from a long run from the city to Howard’s house where the Dream Machine is parked. Finally, he stops and pants for a short moment. As soon as he regains his breath, he speaks to Alex and the trio adventurers.

“I-I-I just wanted to say…” Mr. Hamm pants, “I’m sorry for causing such a fuss back at my restaurant. I-I loved Crizwalke as one of my closest friends, b-but even I know how far would get in one case or another. A-Anyways, to show you how sorry I am a-and to share my thanks for saving the city, I’ve made some sack lunches of my best burgers, fries and shakes. On the house!”

“Wow! That’s mighty neighborly of you, Mr. Hamm!” Figment compliments as he gladly accepts the pig’s food.

“It’s not poisoned, it is?” Alex says in suspicion.

“No! No! I promise you, no more tricks or ganders. In fact, to show what I can do to redeem myself, you and your friends are welcome to eat at my restaurant free of charge anytime you want forever! And to honor your brother Ron’s memory, I’ve decided to name a new special after him with his favorite burgers. ‘The Ron’s Fonds Special!’ It’s the least I can do.”

“I think it’s more than enough on my book. Thanks, Hamm.”

“Hey guys!” Croc comes up behind Hamm out of nowhere and says, “Lets hang out next time you come back. We’ll have tons of fun together!”

“You got it, Croc!” Rachel clicks her tongue and points her index finger out.

“Thank you, Croc, for you help earlier.” Dreamfinder said. “We won’t forget the service you have provided us.”

“It’s no problem!” Croc assured. “We dudes and gals gotta stick together, you know man? Give me a jingle-ling when you come back.”

“We will!” Figment confirms.

Finally, Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex hop on board the Dream Machine. Alex looks back at the people of Iyrilia. The faces he had known and recognized over the course of his lifetime will all be left behind along with some of the people he had helped with his inventions. But more importantly, he will also be leaving Ron and his memories of Ron behind. He is leaving his home world for the sake of learning and exploring different worlds. But someday, he will return back here with the knowledge he has collected and use it to better the city in any way possible.

Dreamfinder takes his seat as the sole pilot and starts imagining his creation to fly. The Dream Machine lifts up to the sky. Everyone below starts waving their hands in farewell. To see them off, Álvaro flies up to traveling group for one last goodbye.

“Come back to Iyrilia whenever you can, Alexander.” Álvaro said. “Dreamfinder, Figment, and dearest Rachel, you are all welcome to come back to Iyrilia anytime you desire.”

“We will!” Rachel said.

“We’ll see you later!” Figment waved.

“Take care, Álvaro!” Alex cried out.

“Goodbye for now, Álvaro!” Dreamfinder said. “And thank you!”

Álvaro lowers himself down back to the surface as he waves his final goodbyes to his new friends and former bride-to-be. He promised himself to always remain grateful for the great deeds they have all performed. They all watched Álvaro leave until he became almost invisible to them. Alex watches his world shrinking smaller and smaller the higher the Dream Machine is carrying him. Dreamfinder and Figment both puts a hand on each side of Alex’s shoulder for his support.

"What a day, what a day, what...a...day!" Rachel groans as he places her palm onto her forehead.

“Don’t worry.” Dreamfinder said to Alex. “You’ll come back home soon.”

“When?” Alex asked.

“That depends on how long your studies will take at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. Depending on how well you do there will determine how long you will be there.”

“Don’t worry, Alex.” Figment chimes in. “I’m sure it will be as fun as we’re going to have getting there.”

“So that means we have to go off course from our mission for a while?” Rachel groans.

“There is no right course or off course when it comes to imagination, Rachel.”

“Indeed.” said Dreamfinder. “No matter where we are or where we go, so long as keep our dreams good, pure and hard at work, we are always on the right path.”

Suddenly, a dream portal opens up for the Dream Machine and its dreaming crew members to enter. They enter the portal without fear until they are completely out of sight by Iyrilian eyes. The journey through imagination continues on.

********************************************************************************************************

Elsewhere in a complete and utter darkness of the universe, a dark being watches over Dreamfinder and his friends on their Dream Machine through some kind of a crystal ball. The ball is shaped exactly like how Spaceship Earth is back in EPCOT and Dreamfinder’s academy in the Floridian location. The eyes on this being are sinister looking. One stare at those eyes could end a life permanently! But who could be watching our heroes flying by in their flights of fancy and for what reason?

“Hmm…you impress me, child.” said the being in a dark and solemn tone. “But it’s going to take more than saving a city to see if you are the one I have been seeking for a millennia now. All in due time…”


	21. Chapter 21

Finally leaving Iyrilia behind, the three adventurers continue their journey through imagination along with their newest traveling companion, Alex Wavers. Just as it happened when they had left Fillidore a while back, the Dreamfinder drives the Dream Machine straight through the same black tunnel of sparkling blue stars they have crossed before. It swiftly speeds through the realms in between to their next world. There is no telling where their imaginations will take them next. Their only tactic is to put aside their mission in finding Spaceship Earth for the time being, return to Earth and help Alex apply for the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. The force of the Dream Machine gliding through the portal very fast has caught on to everybody onboard pushing them backwards from where they stood or sat.

As the Dream Machine streams through the portal, Alex looks behind him sadly and watches Iyrilia turning into a tiny green dot. Of course Rachel had taken notice of Alex’s new behavior. She had just felt this feeling not too long ago when she and the others left Flora the Woosette. She understands what Alex is going through now. Trying her best to reach Alex without letting go of the rail, Rachel inches her way toward him safely fearing that if she were to let go her body would be forced off the Dream Machine and be lost in the realms in between forever. Her feet moved forward every six inches, as she got closer. After three minutes of creeping her feet by the side of the airship, she finally stands beside Alex safely.

“I know that look, Alex.” Rachel said. “You’re sad about leaving home along with the friends and family you love, right?”

“Yeah, I am.” said Alex. “But I’m not worried. So long as I think about them, Iyrilia isn’t going anywhere.”

“That’s good you have a positive attitude, dude.”

“How did you feel when you left your home?”

“I didn’t get a chance to feel how I would have felt leaving Earth. When I started going along with Dreamfinder and Figment, I was just too plum tired to watch it fall behind me. But when we all left the last world we came across before coming to Iyrilia I did feel a little down.”

“You had a friend there?” he asked.

“Yeah.” said Rachel. “She was a princess who had been abused and hidden away by her father so he would have continued his reign over his people, but we took care of him. Now she’s the new queen of her people. I do hope she’s doing alright.”

“I’m sure she is. What was her name?”

“She was born with the name Coaxoch, which means serpent flower. But we renamed her Flora. Queen Flora of Fillidore.”

“Nice!”

“I started missing her the minute we left that world. I’m sure we’ll probably see her again someday, but at the moment I kinda feel a bit out of place from reality.”

“I bet you miss Earth a lot.” Alex guessed.

“Well yeah, of course I do!” said Rachel. “I wanna go back home someday, but something like this doesn’t happen so often. Not on Earth or anywhere. I’ll bet Iyrilia never had something like this happen either.”

“Guess we’re both just lucky.”

“Sure. Lucky.”

Rachel then leaves Alex slowly and enters the cabin. She finds the portraits lifted up due to the speed the Dream Machine is trudging through. But at least there is more material to hold onto. Rachel pushes her hands onto the walls and struggles through the hallway. Arriving to her room, she sees her door is still open. Perhaps Howard Fitz forgot to close the door when he finished cleaning up after fixing the Dream Machine in Iyrilia. However, all the other doors are closed. So why is Rachel’s bedroom opened still?

Everything in Rachel’s bedroom is all topsy-turvy. The heavier furniture from the bed to the dresser and the desk are all backed against the wall from the fast force along with the smaller objects on top. This sort of thing didn’t happen back when Dreamfinder piloted this thing to Iyrilia or even Fillidore. Either they did not notice happening before or that this new force is very powerful enough to move anything it blows at. Rachel climbs into her room and sits on top of the large pile that had been collected. There is really not much to do but wait until she and her friends are finally out of the portal.

 

Be careful, Rachel…

 

Once again, that same weird voice speaks into the atmosphere for no unexplained reason. Maybe the Dream Machine is haunted. And what’s even more weird is that it is only haunting Rachel. Still, that is a matter that can looked into later.

A great light brightens up just ahead of Dream Machine. It is another gateway into the next world. The other side is a new world bound to have a variety of wonderful curiosities to uncover. Maybe there is another variety of people living in those worlds like fuzzy little Mome Raths like in Alice in Wonderland or perhaps a garden of flowers that all sing together as a choir. It’s anybody’s guess to imagine what is on the other side of a mind portal.

Dreamfinder shifts his gears and makes the Dream Machine fly faster. His excitement exceeds him of his senses believing each world is a lot better than the last. Figment sits behind Dreamfinder holding tightly onto the golden rail on the pilot’s seat. Through the force his small purple body starts flying behind as he grabs onto that rail. His grip loosens as Dreamfinder speeds the Dream Machine even faster. Just as Figment finally lets go of the rail, his creator swiftly catches him by the arm and pulls him onto his lap.

As the light on the other side grows brighter and brighter, the Dream Machine shoots out of the portal unharmed. A new breath of wind blows at everyone’s faces as the sun shines greatly down onto them. There is just one odd twist about this place…it’s a desert.

It is a vast desert with sand dunes, sandy winds and a scorching sun. The air is hot and dry. The skies are blue with no clouds for miles. And there is no sign of vegetation anywhere in the area, or any source of life for that matter.

At least the force from the portal has ceased. Everyone’s faces fell heavy in the relief of no more stress blasting at them. They are in a new world now, but somehow and for some reason they should not be there.

“We made it!” Figment exclaims.

“Made it where exactly?” Dreamfinder asked.

“It looks like a dessert.”

“Desert, Figment. We couldn’t possibly be in the Sahara Desert back on Earth, could we?”

“I don’t know. I never got to read any maps from your books in London.”

“What is this place?” Alex stepped in. “It looks a lot like the desert areas in one of my sister countries from back home.”

“There’s nothing here but sand, sand, sand!” Figment shouts.

“And us.” Dreamfinder confirms. “Hey, where’s Rachel?”

“I saw her going into the cabin a few minutes ago.” Alex said.

“Figment, can you go see if she’s alright and bring her here?”

“Sure thing!” said Figment.

********************************************************************************************************

The weight of her furniture has caught itself back up as the Dream Machine exited out of the portal. With Rachel falling back down to the floor, all of her stuff just fell right on top of her. She gained a few bumps on her head from some of the smaller items constantly hitting onto her. As she pulled herself out of the pile, she’s hears the voice speaking again.

“Are you alright, child?” the voice asked.

“Ack, yeah. Yeah, I’m alright.” Rachel said. “Jeez, this didn’t happen last time we were-”

But Rachel paused for a moment. As soon as she lifted her head from the floor she spots an aura-like sprite floating before her. The sprite glows in four different colors: light blue, sky blue, lavender and pink. The colors all swayed in motion with each passing movement it makes. Rachel could not help but stare at the sprite in awe. One way or another she feels to have known who this is.

“You…” Rachel gasped.

“Me?” the sprite said in confusion.

“You! You were in one of my dreams a couple days ago. The one who encouraged me to sing!”

“And a lovely singing voice you have, I must say.”

“Who are you?”

“You don’t remember me?”

“You’re saying we’ve met?”

“Of course.” The sprite then replies sarcastically, “We’ve met in your dreams a couples nights ago just as you said.”

“Oh ha ha. You’re funny.” Rachel replied with the same tone. “Seriously, who are you?”

“I am Yuna.”

“Where did you come from? No, let me guess! The natural way or from the sky?”

“We seemed to be starting this conversation well just before you’ve made that remark. Though I’m not that surprised.”

“Not surprised? Wh- oh, you’ve probably seen how I’ve been talking with Dreamfinder and Figment then. Wait. You weren’t spying on me, were you?”

“I may just as well have been. And it’s a good thing I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the Iyrilian god come and save you from falling down that tower.”

“You summoned Álvaro?” Rachel assumed.

“I had to.” Yuna replied. “It may have been against the regulations of that curse he was under, but you and your friends were in danger and I didn’t want to see you dead. And just when your journey was just about to really begin.”

“Didn’t want to see us dead. Yeah sure, that really worked out just fine until Crizwalke came in and killed Ron Wavers. Did you see that happen?”

“Yes, I did, which isn’t to say I am not sorry for all of your loss. Especially Alex’s.”

“Whatever you say. How did you even get into the Dream Machine in the first place? You didn’t sneak in while we were going places, were you?”

“Sneak? Why would I even do that? I just walked on into the cabin while Dreamfinder and Figment were talking about how sorry they were for getting you fired from your job.”

“That’s sneaking.”

“What difference does it make now?” Yuna asked. “I’m here now.”

“I’m telling Dreamfinder.” Rachel said as she started walking off.

But as Rachel reaches up to the doors, it instantly shuts up tight and locks itself. She shakes the doorknob vigorously, but it won’t open. As if being tricked, she’s locked inside with Yuna.

“Dude!” Rachel shouted. “What the heck? Open the door!”

“I’m not the one who closed it.”

“You know, I’m starting to think that you coming into my dreams is a way of you trying to hold me up for something you want.”

“The only thing I want out of you, Rachel, is to know you more than I have had a long time ago.”

“Wait. How do you know my name?”

“I’ve known you since before you were born, Rachel. Before any mortal human on Earth has been born.”

“Uhh….” 

Rachel just stood there dumbfounded. Her face scrunched slightly as she groaned continuously. Before Rachel was born? Is Yuna serious? She couldn’t be. Nobody could possibly know who is who until he or she is born. Not unless you’re a god like God. This is just too puzzling to take in, even for Rachel. Perhaps not even Dreamfinder or Figment could understand that very unlikely possibility. The thought of this is starting to melt the young women’s mind.

“Uhh…before I was born?” Rachel groans. “That’s not…Yuna, I don’t think that’s possible.”

“It most certainly is possible, Rachel.” Yuna countered. “You of all people should know it as well as I do. You were there yourself. Don’t you remember?”

“Nnnnnnnnnnno-o-o-o?”

“That’s okay. You were probably too young to remember anyway. You were only just a tiny little sprite as I was once. Perhaps the tiniest one I have ever seen in my life.”

“Sprite? Me? Like you? No!”

“You were! Just as every human creation made has come by as quickly as they have passed on.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick. Feint at the least.”

“Oh here! Let me get your bed back in order.”

Just as she said, Yuna swirls around the tossed-up furniture and magically levitates them back to original estate. The desk is back onto the 5ft deck along with her chair and her logbook. The books she had have all flown back into the shelves. The dresser is placed beside the wall where next to it sat Rachel’s bed with the nightstand on the other side. Whatever broken pieces have been leftover from the crash have all been wondrously repaired. Not a single crack or leak that has been made is anymore visible to the naked eye.

“Whoa!” Rachel exclaimed. “Now I’m really feeling feint.”

“Well then, sit down and collect yourself Rachel.” said Yuna as she helped Rachel down for a seat on her bed. “We wouldn’t want you to lose your head.”

“Whew. Is it hot in here, or is it just me?”

“It’s gotten warmer considering how Dreamfinder has brought us all into a desert.”

“What?! A desert?”

Rachel then jumped off of her bed and ran to one of the pothole windows. She looks outside where all she could see are blue skies and endless sand. This must be the new world the Dream Machine has traveled them to. And since the Dreamfinder has insisted on returning to Earth, this place could either be one of the better-known deserts in the world or just a side stop into a strip of the imagination. Whichever way it goes, the question is which way to go. 

“Seriously? A desert?” Rachel asked frantically. “Why did it have to be a desert?”

“Do you not like deserts?” Rachel asked.

“Sort of. Palm Springs, I can handle. But not much for everywhere else.”

“Doesn’t California have many deserts?”

“First of all, you’d better tell me how you also know where I live. And second, California is considered to be ‘the Entire World in One State.’ ” You should probably know. We’ve got deserts, cities, coastlines, mountains, valleys and plains, pine forests. The only thing we don’t have are rain forests unless you count having water rain onto the pine forests.”

“Who are you talking to?” Figment asked.

Rachel screamed. She turns around and finds Figment fluttering his tiny orange wings at the arch of her bedroom door. How did the door get open? And how long he’s been standing, or flapping, there? His yellow eyes stared at Rachel’s frightened expression. Apparently, the sudden appearance of the tiny purple dragon has spooked her quite a bit, which has left Rachel clutching her heart from popping out.

“Dude! Figment, you could have knocked.” said Rachel.

“Oh sorry!” Figment apologized. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your…uh…who were you talking to?”

“I was talking to this sprite right…here.”

But Yuna was nowhere to be seen. She has disappeared! Where did she go?

“What sprite?” Figment asked.

“That-that sprite!” Rachel spoke in a frantically fast pace. “She was right here! I saw it! She was all blue and purplely and somewhat a little pink, and she was in my dreams a few nights ago who got me to sing and then she was floating around here, she rearranged my room and told me she knew me since before I was born and…and…you didn’t see that?”

Her only response was Figment shaking his head no. Could this really have been real? Or could this be an illusion from the new desert air temperature? What is going on here?

“Wha…What the heck?” Rachel gasped to herself as felt her arm over her forehead for any sweat.

“Rachel, are you okay?” Figment asked.

“I don’t…I don’t know. Am I? I think I am. But am I really? I just…I don’t…what’s going on?”

“Uhh…I think you might need to take a step outside for a little bit. Get some fresh, but very hot air.”

“You’re probably right. But I don’t really want to go out in the heat.”

“So walk in the shade. Maybe you can imagine us an umbrella to appear.”

“I suppose I could do that.” Rachel said as she slowly walks towards the dragon. “That’s not a bad idea at all.”

“Right.” Figment said awkwardly. “Anyway, I came because Dreamfinder wanted to see if you were alright and that he wanted you to come outside and see him.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be right there. And Figment!”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure you didn’t see anything? Or at least hear anything?”

“I’m sure. Was I supposed to?”

“Well, not exactly. Sort of. It would have helped proved my point if you were here.”

“Sorry I came too late then. Now come on! Alex and Dreamfinder are waiting for us.”

Figment flies ahead of Rachel and leaves the bedroom. Following him, Rachel is just about to leave before she was stopped by a firm grip on her shoulder. The touch again spooked the girl to a quivering shrug. Her hands shook below, her left eye started twitching, her blood turned cold and both of her eyes dilated with fear. She barely turned her head slightly to the left with her eyes darted at the tip end of Yuna’s sprite form. Rachel gulped silently as Yuna spoke solemnly.

“Don’t think this is the end of our talk, Rachel.” Yuna said gravely. “There is much that we need to discuss and you are the only person I can trust out of everyone in this universe. And that includes your new friends.”

“What the hell?” Rachel whispered a gasp as her body shook.

“There is a great danger here in this desert. I will accompany you on this new quest of escape. Should you ever need me, I will be residing in your necklace for your safekeeping.”

“What? No! Wait! Not the nec-”

But before Rachel could finish, Yuna has already attained herself into the sapphire necklace Dreamfinder had made for her. The pressure of Yuna’s entrance pressed against Rachel’s chest. This is a wish-making necklace, not a refuge, she thought to herself. But it’s too late to tell Yuna that now. The necklace then started glowing in a crystallized blue reflection. The girl shielded away her eyes preventing a blindness to overcome her. When the light ceased, that was the end of it. There is no way out of it. Rachel has a new unlikely companion to haunt her for who knows how long. 

But Rachel did want to let this happen. Her breathes quickened into gasps of terror. She could not feel her arms or her legs yet her legs begin to move hastily as if they are being controlled by their own free will. That was at the time where Rachel started to scream.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel screamed. “Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder!”

She screamed all the way out of her bedroom, out of the cabin and right where Dreamfinder sat on his pilot seat alongside Alex and Figment. Her shrieks have echoed far out across the ocean of sand, yet there is no one else out there who can hear her but the gang. Hearing Rachel coming along, Dreamfinder quickly turns himself towards Rachel’s direction only to find her sweating and panting and quivering. He could not tell if this is her reacting to the heat or a kind of fear. The most important thing is his concern for her. After all, he is the host and Rachel is the guest of honor. All hosts must heed to their guests situations when needed. This would be no exception for Dreamfinder to handle.

“Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouted.

“Rachel? What’s wrong?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I was in…and then I was…and she…and then he…and THEN she-”

“Whoa, Rachel! Slow down! Take some breaths and use your words.”

“Yeah Rach, what’s going on?” Alex asked.

“I…I was in my room while we were flying through the portal…” Rachel stuttered, “and then when we got out I saw a sprite in my room. It was that…it was that same sprite I told you about earlier. The one who wanted me to sing in my dreams when we came to Iyrilia? Said something about knowing me since before I was born…and then Figment came in, but he missed her, and then when I was leaving she came back and took possession of my necklace and she’s in there right now! See?!”

Rachel pulls out her necklace for Dreamfinder to see. Surely the sunlight out here would be enough for anyone to see what is inside what. He may not be a jewel cutter, but he should at least see what’s in the necklace he gave Rachel aside from the tiny little sparks it is made out of. But that was not the case Dreamfinder had come to.

“Where?” Dreamfinder asked. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s in there, Dreamer!” Rachel yells, breathing very fast. “I’m telling you, there’s something in the necklace right now. And I’m not imagining this!”

“Rachel, calm down. I didn’t say I don’t believe you.”

“You look like you’re about to say it. I can see it in your eyes!”

“Rachel, stop it. Stop it right now! I think you might be reacting to the heat. It can mess with your head a bit.”

“OH! SO YOU’RE SAYING I’M MESSED UP?! IS THAT IT?!” Rachel screams.

“That is not what I was suggesting. I’m just saying you need to get out of the heat and try to cool yourself.”

“Yeah man, you look like you could use a cold shower.” said Alex.

“Look. Half of this isn’t even my fault.” Rachel said. “I may have lived pretty distant from the center of the equator back home, but I prefer some semi-warm-pretty cold weather. I get delirious when I’m in the heat for some time and it works faster when I’m in closed spaces. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BRING US TO A DESERT?! ARE WE EVEN ON EARTH OR WHAT?!”

“Well…as I mentioned earlier, we could be in the Sahara Desert.” Dreamfinder guesses.

“Just could be.” Figment clarifies.

“Could? Could be?” Rachel mocks. She continues to yell, “You don’t even know? Shouldn’t you know where we go since you dream up these places?”

“Not knowing makes the trip more fun.” Figment points out.

“Being stranded in the middle of a desert in some different world that NONE OF US knows where it is precisely while I’m being haunted by…whatever…is not fun, Figment!”

“Rachel, you’re getting a little out of hand here.” Dreamfinder interrupts. “For your sanity, I suggest go take a cold shower and cool off your temper.”

“Temper?” Rachel shouts. “I DON’T HAVE A TEMPER!”

“RACHEL!” Dreamfinder jumps off his seat and points towards the cabin. “IF YOU DON’T GO TAKE A DAMN COLD SHOWER RIGHT NOW, I CAN ALWAYS USE MY IMAGINATION TO SEND YOU HOME IN AN INSTANT!”

“GO AHEAD AND TRY! I DARE YOU TO!”

“Whoa, whoa! Stop it!” Figment flies in between the two and tries to push them away. “This isn’t how we settle things.”

“Yeah, come on guys.” Alex added. “It’s the heat that’s getting to you. You’ve got to let this go.”

Then all is silent. The girl and the Dreamfinder stare at each other down as both their foreheads begin to shed waterfalls of sweat. Even though Rachel could continue on with her ranting, she can tell in Dreamfinder’s eyes how serious he is. At least there’s some concern in him for her yet she feels like he doesn’t believe her. About Yuna anyway. She turns away from her friends and leaves them behind towards the cabin. Dreamfinder sits back down on his seat and focuses on the route ahead, wherever the route it in this dusty wasteland. Figment and Alex look at each other feeling their nerves rising from the scene that had just happened.

“Dreamfinder?” Figment speaks up as he gathers all the courage he could muster. “You’re not really intending on sending Rachel home, are you?”

“…No.” Dreamfinder replies in a pout and low tone, low enough for Rachel not to hear.

“Can you actually send people wherever you want them to be?” Alex asked.

“No. I can’t see the place, can I? And even if I could, I can’t do it here. It’s too hot to think.”

“Oh.”

With Dreamfinder, Alex and Figment focused in their own conversation, they were unaware of Rachel mumbling to herself. And with everyone stuck in the middle of a desert with no signs of water or any vegetation, it’s enough to get everyone a little cranky.

“I’m not nuts.” Rachel mumbled. “I know what I saw and it’s real.”

"As real as ever, Rachel." Yuna giggled through the necklace in secret from Dreamfinder and the others, leaving Rachel trembling as she walked.

"Oh damn."


	22. Chapter 22

The heat of the desert has increased in temperature to near extreme measures since the Dream Machine arrived with its passengers. There is no sign of an oasis anywhere and chances of finding any natives lurking across the sand for help are very slim. The Sun grew intensely hot on the crew as if it were no less than 100,000 feet away in distance.

Rachel’s shower definitely served a purpose for her tempered body from sweating and continuing her argument against Dreamfinder. Her only thoughts were of Yuna taking refuge in the necklace Dreamfinder specifically made just for her. It’s an accessory, not a hotel room. Occasionally, Rachel would hear Yuna humming and watch her necklace glow a bright blue every time she giggles. Not since they met had Yuna shown herself out of the necklace. At least it gives Rachel a little privacy and a fresh peaceful mind…for the time being.

It is hard to tell if Dreamfinder’s face is red from the heat or if he’s still mad at Rachel for being inconsiderate, loud and rude. It is really the heat that should be the blame of her rudeness, not her, he thought. Sooner or later, he’ll have to forgive her for snapping at him so long as Rachel forgives Dreamfinder for raising his voice at her and threaten to send her home. Due to his newfound feelings for her, it would be unwise to treat her with disrespect. On the other hand, Rachel has been the main cause of his irritation this whole time she’s been with him and Figment. So what would be the point then: simply for the sake of a progressing admiration? Only one can wonder.

Normally, when Dreamfinder would talk about his feelings of Rachel, Figment would come up and tease him a bit. But this time, it best not to bring the topic back up to him. The best the purple dragon can do for now is sit by his side as his companion just as he has always been since the beginning of their adventures as if it were fate that made Dreamfinder bright his imaginary friend come to life. There are no words the dragon could speak to express his gratitude for his existence.

So far, Alex’s adventure is off to a slightly decent start. One day he’s lived in a city in the middle of a hollow mountain with mountains and lush green fields all around and then next day he’s sees nothing but sand everywhere. And being a Katkin himself, he’s likely to sweat every drop of liquid from his body from the heat and shine on his fur like the dew on grass in the early morning. In other words, like Rachel, he is definitely not into this kind of weather.

The Dream Machine glides over the dunes of the desert all day and into the night. The one thing about deserts that most people would often find annoying is how the sun in the daylight would singe them to a crisp and then how the coolness freezes them to the core of their bodies in the nighttime. Out of everyone in the airship who would feel most likely to freeze to death in the night would probably be Dreamfinder and Rachel with their delicate flesh. Figment would get cold, but would have more protection for him from his scales. And another thing about the Katkins, in Alex’s case, is that their fur is warm enough to last throughout the night.

Days have gone by and soon turned into weeks, and then turned into an entire month of roaming in a lifeless desert. There is nothing to do but keep moving forward. The provisions of food and water are running out to where everything has to be rationed daily. The sun is draining the energy out of the four friends. Though wearing a top hat to protect his eyes from blindness of the sun’s light, it is not enough to protect Dreamfinder’s face from getting sunburned. Same with Rachel, too, only she decides to stay inside the cabin away from the heat. Figment finds shades on one side of the Dream Machine while the sun beats down on the other. And Alex has been flopping around in the boy’s bathtub hoping to find at least a little coolness to brush his skin and fur over to relieve him. The days are terrible and the nights are impossible. During the days they all sweat, and during the night they stop the Machine to cool down and huddle in their beds and covers for warmth. This desert is no place for any man or woman of any kind in existence to live in.

Then, one afternoon, Rachel trudges out of her bedroom to Dreamfinder groaning aloud. Not a very delightful sound to make. She finds her host with his blue and dress coat off, his white shirt unbuttoned, and his socks and shoes off. His eyes heavily drooped and blurred with his sweat cascading down over them and his face. His breaths are rasped and scratched to every word he would speak, beyond thirsting for even just one drop of water to satisfy him.

“Ugh! Dreamfinder!” Rachel groans. “We’ve been out here for weeks! Let’s just dream ourselves out of this heat trap and be done with this place already.”

“Not yet, Rachel…” Dreamfinder sighed in weakness from the hot temperature. “There’s something out here…with dream power. I can…feel it.”

“Dude! The only thing you can feel is this heat just as it is for everyone else. Have you suddenly become selfish enough to keep going instead of getting your friends out of this place?”

“Rach…”

He could not finish saying Rachel’s name and faints. Dreamfinder then falls off of his seat to the side and closes his eyes. Shocked, Rachel lets out a scream in his name and calls out for Alex to Figment for help. They come out of the cabin and find Dreamfinder completely unconscious and also let out of scream of shock. And the worst part of this is tragedy is that Dreamfinder is the only person who can drive the Dream Machine well. Second in command would have to be Figment.

“Quick! Get Dreamfinder inside for some water.” Figment orders.

As Rachel and Alex try to lift Dreamfinder to their shoulders, Dreamfinder groans in agony of the sun’s light. Some shelter is what he really needs. Dragged on his feet into the cabin, they bring him to his bedroom, onto his bathtub and turn on the cold water.

The cold water instantly takes effect into Dreamfinder’s senses, his arms and legs spazz out in all directions trying to take grip of the side of the tub, and his eyes grow big in alarm. Some of the water that falls into his mouth he spits out and chokes. He then tries to drink some of that water to quench his throat. Refreshing as it was, it also tastes like sand.

“Goodness! That’s much better!” Dreamfinder exclaims with excitement. 

“Are you alright, Dreamfinder?” Alex asks.

“Yes, I’m better now. Thank you.”

“Dude, you really scared us right there.” said Rachel with concern. “We thought you were going to die of getting baked like a potato and boiled like a lobster.”

“Will you please refrain from the mention of lobsters and potatoes, Rachel? We’re already low on food and I don’t want to think about starving yet.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Rachel…Rachel…Alex, I’m so sorry. I really let you all down this time. I got so consumed into finding what dream power I could find I let the heat get to me. Will you forgive me?”

“Of course we will.” Alex said.

“Not until we get out of here.” Rachel said.

“Rachel!”

“Okay fine. I do forgive you, Dreamfinder…and apologize for that rude remark.”

“It’s alright, Rachel.” Dreamfinder smiled. “Really it is. Now let’s say we finally get out of this desert and back home.”

“Yes please! Finally!” Rachel and Alex exclaim together.

“Hey guys! Check this out!” Figment calls out from outside.

Figment’s cries are indistinct to hear from the cabin. Everyone rushes out to the pilot’s seat where the dragon sat controlling the airship.

He points ahead and asks “I’m not the only one seeing what I’m seeing ahead of us, right?”

Up ahead of the Dream Machine behind a massive heat wave Figment sees a group of small green stems poking out of the sand. Below it a watery lagoon surrounded by a layer of solid ground. It might be just a mirage, images that are playing with Figment’s mind. Or is it?

“I think I see it.” said Alex.

“Yeah, me too!” Rachel agrees.

“A real oasis!” Dreamfinder jumps with excitement. “Figment, step on it!”

“Aye-aye, captain!” Figment salutes.

The dragon presses on the gas pedal, or dream pedal, and speeds the airship towards the supposed oasis. Could it really be an oasis? Is this be the end of their fiery misery? Perhaps everyone has their heads messed up by the heat. Or maybe they are mistaking this oasis for something else. Whatever it is, they are not taking any chances. Everyone but Figment is pushed back off their feet and onto the wooden floor of the Dream Machine as it glides in terrible speed to their destination ahead. They are this desperate enough to find relief in the form of food and water.

Finally, the Dream Machine pulls up beside the oasis. At least, they think it is an oasis. Dreamfinder jumps off first, feeling a little weak in his legs from the fainting in the heat, a drags his feet to the nearest “tree.” He knocks onto the trunk only to feel its solidness and the liquid touch of cold water. They are real! 

Given a thumb’s up from Dreamfinder, everyone else jumps off the Dream Machine with high praise. Encouraged by the sight, Figment imagines a diving board to appear and wearing trunks to match the occasion. He hops on off the board and performs a perfect swan dive into the lagoon. Laughing heartedly, Dreamfinder picks Rachel up in his arms and follows his imaginary friend inside. Such a blessing it is to feel the cold fluid enveloping their physical beings and cooling their skins and flowing their hair above their heads like seaweed in the ocean. Almost out of breathe, three friends swim to surface and gasp for air. Then they start splashing each other. Big waves, little waves, and every kind of splashes they can think of. But something is missing.

“Hey Alex!” Rachel shouts from the lagoon. “Why don’t you come inside? The water’s great!”

Only Alex Wavers remained out of the water. He stood on the edge of the lagoon wiggling his toes in his nervousness. His tail twitched vigorously and his eyes shrunk smaller with intensity. 

“I’m hydrophobic!” Alex exclaimed.

“Hi-de-wha-wha?” Figment failed to pronounce.

“Hydrophobic. It means I’m afraid of water. I can’t swim. It’s a natural fear given to many of the Katkin race, with some exceptions.”

“I guess that’s a typical fear for every kind of universal cat.” Rachel thought to herself.

“But aren’t you hot with the desert sun beating on you?” Dreamfinder asked.

“I am,” said Alex, “but if I jump into the water I’ll feel a lot heavier coming out. My fur would weigh me down another twenty pounds at least.”

“So sit out in the sun then.” Rachel insisted.

“Yeah!” Figment said, “The sun was already hot enough to heat us up once we first came into this world. It should likely dry you off just as quickly once you get out of the lagoon and sit a while.”

“I suppose, but I’m way too scared to get into the water anyway.” Ales pointed out.

“Here. Climb on my back and I’ll carry you in.” Dreamfinder decided.

“No, I couldn’t!”

“You want to cool off, don’t you?”

“Well…”

“Come on! It’ll be fine.”

Just as he said, Dreamfinder turns his back toward the Katkin and waited. Reluctant to try, Alex crouches down to Dreamfinder’s height. To do that Alex would have to dip both of his feet into the water first. His sweat dropped through his tangled fur. He feels both fear and temptation rising up in him; fear of feeling in the cold water, temptation to feel the cold water. What choice did he have? He could lick the sweat off of him to cool down like other cats normally do, but that is both disgusting and disturbing to see. There is no other way to cool himself off.

Alex takes off his shoes and gently lowers his feet into the lagoon. The cold feeling of liquid penetrates through the young Katkin’s fur and then touches his skin. His feet and legs tremble in a bittersweet motion making him shiver from the, what seems to be like, icy grip. So far, so good. Nothing bad is happening at the moment. Now all Alex has to do is wrap his arms around Dreamfinder’s shoulders and jump on his back. His arms quickly grab around Dreamfinder’s neck, nearly choking him, and with his intensity increasing his claws grow out and pierce into the skin on Dreamfinder’s chest.

“Agh! Easy with the claws, Alex.” Dreamfinder exclaims.

“Sorry.” said Alex.

He loosens his grip on Dreamfinder’s front side. Then Alex wrapped his legs around his torso and held tightly with his tail tucked in between. All set with Alex hugging his back, Dreamfinder walks away through the water from the edge of the lagoon. Easy come easy go. Alex’s eyes closed shut with fear. The farther Dreamfinder went, the higher the water rose up to Alex’s torso and then to his shoulders. Finally, when Dreamfinder stopped, the Katkin slowly opened his eyes. All he can see is nothing but blue water below him. At first he finches trying to climb right on top of Dreamfinder, but all it does is get himself to fall over backwards into the water. 

Now Alex is all soaked. His fur flows in the watery atmosphere like seaweed in the ocean floor or grass in a Zephyrus wind. He opens his eyes and abruptly searches around him. All he can see are the lower halves of his friends and the wet sandy floors of the desert. His breath was about to give out as he searched. He spazzed out and struggled his way back to the surface. The Katkin’s arms and legs swished and swayed violently as he tries to make his way out. His only salvation was Dreamfinder and Rachel quickly pulling him back up by the arms just in time before he was about to drown. Alex gasped deeply for breath. It was such a sweet relief.

“Are you alright, Alex?” Rachel asked with concern.

“I’m…I’m alright.” Alex quivers.

“Whew! That was a close one.” Figment sighed with relief.

“Goodness, Alex.” Dreamfinder exclaimed. “I must say you’re lasting a lot longer in the water than I thought.”

“Yeah…it’s actually…not that bad.” Alex said. “It feels kind of nice.”

“That’s saying something for a catlike person.” Rachel said. “Then again, lots of big cats like to swim a lot more than smaller ones do.”

“Then Alex must be growing up!” Figment laughed.

“Funny. You’re funny, you know that?” Alex sassed.

“Well, at least you can last a long while in the water.” said Dreamfinder. “Do you still want to stay in?”

“Well…why not? But only if you’ll teach me how to swim.”

“Deal!”

“Yippee!” Figment cheers.

Cheerful at the results, Figment jumps back onto his diving board and dives into the water with Rachel doing cannonballs. Meanwhile, Dreamfinder teaches Alex how to swim. Of course Alex’s fear of water stays in intact throughout half of the lesson, but after a while he seems to get better and better. With Rachel, the fresh feeling of cool water running and flowing through her hair is incredible; it’s something she had been waiting a month in the desert to feel once again. Figment’s enjoyment of swimming has overflowed him with the splendors of the underwater experience. The one time he had experience being in water in his life was when he had been splashed upon with Dreamfinder by giant raindrops in the brainstorm during their fist adventure. To finally be able to swim just for the fun of it is more than enough fun to last a day’s worth. Everyone is having a good time. That is until Figment stopped his fun time at a first glance at something curious.

“Hey guys, look at that!” Figment calls out.

About twenty feet away from the oasis sat a dark cave. The entrance to it is about as big as the lagoon itself, only it’s more rocky that liquid on the outside. The inside of it is but a sandy floor made solid as it went deeper into the darkness. The walls that are visible from the outside are packed with stalagmites and stalactites all around from floor to ceiling in every size and shape possible. Intriguing it is, yet also strange.

“Strange. That wasn’t there before.” said Dreamfinder.

“You sure it’s not a mirage, Figment?” Rachel asked.

“How can it be a mirage if everybody can see it?” Figment replied.

“I guess my head isn’t as straightforward from the heat as I thought it would be by now.”

“Why don’t we go see for ourselves?” 

“I don’t know, Figment.” Dreamfinder said with uneasiness inside. “It looks pretty spooky in there. Plus, it just showed up out of nowhere without any of us noticing it. Doesn’t it sound a little suspicious to you? And suppose there are ferocious creatures in there and—”

“Okay, NOW you’re being such a worrywart, Dreamfinder.” said Rachel.

“I’m just pointing out the dangerous possibilities.”

“It would be cool to go spelunking for a bit.”

“I don’t know what spelunking is and I’m already starting to like the idea.” Figment laughs with excitement.

“You guys can go if you want.” Alex said as he jumps out of the pool and onto the sand with his fur dangling heavily. “I’m far too drenched to walk anywhere for the moment.”

“You’re going to stay out here all alone?” 

“I don’t mind. Ron and I used to sneak around the caves and underground trails in Iyrilia back when we were considered outlaws, so I’d probably get bored of the journey later on. Plus, if I get too hot from the heat again I’ll just jump back into the pool and practice swimming again.”

“Alright. Suit yourself.”

Figment and Rachel jump out of the lagoon and start heading towards the entrance. The girl turns around and finds Dreamfinder still in the water staring at the size of the cave. She can tell by the way his eyes are gazing in awe of the structure, how relaxed his shoulders are and how wide his mouth is open underneath his bushy, yet well brushed mustache. She chuckles and slightly snickers a scoff at the dumb sight, though it was not enough for Dreamfinder to notice.

It doesn’t make any sense for the cave to appear out of nowhere. This sort of thing does not happen in reality. Then again, this is a dream world. In dreams, anything is likely enough to happen in any way, shape or form. Dreamfinder, of all people, would know that. And he learned it the hard way from his past adventures. Did he imagine this cave to appear? He doesn’t think so? Did any of his friends imagine it appear? Judging by the looks on their faces, he had figured not. Very strange indeed.

“Are you coming?” Rachel asked Dreamfinder.

“Huh? Oh, yes!” Dreamfinder said as he snapped out of his trance. “I’m coming.”

As he says this, Dreamfinder jumps out of the lagoon to join his friends leaving Alex behind in the sun. His shirt and pants come out dragging and drown out the access water that had built up inside. The only piece of his outfit that is dry is his hat. He catches up to Figment and Rachel as they begin their spelunking expedition.

********************************************************************************************************

Through the darkness of his surroundings in the geodesic sphere, the being watches the three travelers walking in the desert cave through his crystal ball. He chuckles evilly at the sight with his fingers playfully entwining, taking delight in their choice of action. 

“Foolish mortal child and friends.” said the dark being heartedly, “Your fourth friend has the right idea of staying behind, because little do you know that what lies at the end of that cave will be your undoing!”

The being continues his laughing endlessly in the darkness as he watches his victims inch themselves to what may likely become their doom. 

********************************************************************************************************

The light of the sun reflecting off the surface of the sand gets dimmer and dimmer the further and deeper the three friends walk into the mysterious cave. The exceptions of light shining down in rays like searchlights at a movie premiere. The stalagmites and stalactites pointed in all directions up and down, left and right. They came in many different sizes from big to small, short to tall, fat to skinny, one prong to two, maybe even three. The further the three friends venture into the cave, the darker it became. On the side of the wall, a wooden plank stands out between a couple of rocks. Dreamfinder takes the plank and lights it with a spare match. The fire from the torch has given enough light to show the path ahead of him and his friends. As they continue forth, the road in the cave seems to be veering all the way towards the right side as if they are walking down a spiral staircase without stairs. Not only that, the walls keep getting smaller and smaller the further they go and the stalactites and stalagmites are growing fewer and fewer.

“Are you two starting to feel something weird about this cave, or is it just me?” Rachel asked.

“I was just about to ask you that.” said Dreamfinder. “This doesn’t look like any other cave. This was…built…by something.”

“Yeah. And look at the walls.” Figment points out. “They are as smooth as stone.”

“Well that’s saying something about them.” Rachel said as she feels the wall closest to her with her fingertips, then knocking her knuckles gently onto it. “This…this doesn’t feel like rocks at all! Even the pointy rocks below and above us are not made of rocks.”

“Stalagmites and stalactites.” Figment says as he reads from his dictionary book that he imagined to appear in his hands.

“Wait. Where’d you get that dictionary book? Wait, no, never mind! Don’t answer that! I didn’t mean-”

“IMAGINATION!” Figment cheers.

Rachel sighs with annoyance built inside saying “I can’t believe I walked right into that again.”

“I can!” Figment giggled.

“Weird.” Dreamfinder said as he, too, knocks onto the walls himself. “ If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the walls in here are made of…calcium?”

“Why would there be calcium in caves?” Rachel asked.

“Since calcium is a mineral that can be found through a drainage system underneath the cave, the moisture of that water would likely dissolve some of the layers of rocks into different tunnels. The water would lose its carbon dioxide each time a drop of it would fall from the ceiling to the ground and deposit a coating of calcium, thereby continuing to build and build and build itself up into making all of the different forms of stalactites and stalagmites.”

The look Dreamfinder receives from Figment and Rachel as they both exchange glances to each other with confused and blank faces indicated that they did not understand a single word he said. Either that or that neither of them would have believed Dreamfinder had known something like that for who knows how long. It’s enough for either one of them to scratch their heads in confusion. Dreamfinder’s confidence in teaching his friends a bit of his education doused as he watches his friends stare at him like that. His audience has been dumbfounded in a bewildering side.

“What? I took a geology class during the second half of my years in preparatory school. And I visited the Chislehurst Caves to study the rock forms and how they developed as part of my final projects back in London.” Dreamfinder said.

“That’s high school, right?” Rachel asked.

“If that’s what you would call it, then yes.” he sighed as he rubs his eyes with two pinching fingers. “But here’s what baffles me. There’s never been a cave on Earth where everything in here is made of calcium. Have you noticed that we haven’t passed by any pool or source of water in here since we left the oasis?”

“Hmm…come to think of it, I haven’t.” Figment said as he observes his surroundings.

“That is a little strange.” said Rachel. “Hey, suppose if we scream very loudly the calcium would not get effected either?”

“It’s possible.” Dreamfinder said. “Though I don’t think we should risk the chance of us getting trapped inside with no way out.”

“Good point.”

The quest in searching the caves continues with Dreamfinder first and Rachel and Figment behind him. Each step they take takes them one step further in confusion of how and why the walls of the caves are not like other caves. One possibility may be that their imaginations are the cause of this natural formation. In fact, it may be the only possible idea they could think of at this point. There is nothing else at the moment that can prove otherwise about it.

As they hike further down the cave, a strange occurrence happens unbeknownst to either Dreamfinder or Figment. Behind them, Rachel’s necklace begins to glow again in a bright blue color. It’s Yuna. She must be giggling again for some reason. Maybe she’s laughing inside at Rachel’s lack of knowledge for cave formations. If that is the case, then why is the necklace levitating itself and pulling against Rachel’s neck in the opposite direction of their route. The silver chain that strings through the blue gem chokes into Rachel’s neck, causing her to cough silently and back further away from her friends. Whatever Yuna is up to, her actions are likely enough to kill Rachel in the process. Rachel turns around swiftly for the chain to pull her only by the back of her neck and relieve her of the choking. She tries to pull the gem back towards her, but the struggle is becoming too intense for her to keep her grip on it.

“You again?” Rachel said as she quietly struggles through her voice. “What’s gotten into you? You could have choked me to death!”

But the necklace kept on pulling her away. It pulls her hard enough for Rachel’s heels to drag a trail of two lines on the dirt ground. The back of Rachel’s neck is starting to break from Yuna’s incredible strength. The girl reaches behind her neck while Yuna tries to pull harder, unsuspecting what Rachel is trying to do. She finds the clasp of the chain and unfastens it, sending her down to her knees in relief and Yuna darting away with the necklace like an arrow from a bow. Collecting herself, along with the necklace, Yuna returns to Rachel in a quick pace.

“Yuna, what the heck?” Rachel yelled.

“Danger! There’s danger in this cave!” Yuna exclaims.

“What?”

“There is a giant monster living in here. You have to get out of here now!

“Whoa, hold on! If there’s any danger in here, which so far there isn’t any, I can’t go without my friends. C’mon!”

“Rachel, you’re making a big mistake.”

“Who are you to tell my what to do?” Rachel barks as she collects her necklace and starts running shouting, “Hey guys! Wait up!”

“Rachel! Wait!”

It’s no use. Ignoring Yuna’s warning, Rachel runs off with Yuna back to Dreamfinder and Figment not noticing how much deeper she is running down the cave. With every turn coming toward her, she would think the cave is trailing lower and lower below the surface of the desert. As she charges forward the slightly tilted route she is gaining more speed. Right before Rachel was about to trip forward from the speed increase, she finds Dreamfinder and Figment still moving forward as if they had hardly noticed her being gone.

“Hey!” Rachel called out.

“Rachel! What happened?” Dreamfinder asked. “Why’d you fall back?”

“It’s Yuna. That sprite that’s taken over my necklace a while back.”

“This again?” Figment rolled his eyes.

“She tried to pull me away from you two and choked me along the away and then she says that there’s danger in this cave.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I don’t know. By the sound of her voice and her trying to pull me away from you guys, she seemed pretty desperate to get out of here.”

“Rachel, we’ve been over this already." said Dreamfinder. "There is no sprite in your necklace and—”

“Ah! See?” Rachel screamed. “You don’t believe me after all! I knew it!”

“Rachel, be quiet!” Dreamfinder shouts. “Like I said, I did not see any sprite in your necklace early before nor did I see any kind of sprite or creature take comfort in it when I made the necklace for you. And even though it’s fine of you to give it name yourself, whom I can tell she might be your own imaginary friend, I don’t believe there is such a person or thing as this…what’s her name? It’s Yuna, right?”

“Says the guy who didn’t believe his own imaginary friend would come to life in the first place.”

With that kind of remark, Dreamfinder takes off one of his gloves and immediately slaps Rachel on the cheek with his hand.

“Ouch.” Figment cringes with shock.

Then Dreamfinder grabs Rachel by her shirt collar with one fist and the other holding the torch beside them. His eyes shot straight in hers as his pupils shrunk to match his mood. His face crimples and his teeth clenches with rage building up inside him. What Rachel just said clearly insulted him. Rachel, shocked with her nerves by the slapping, kept her face firm from giving into tears or weakness. This sort of thing would make her feel that since Dreamfinder is a man, he’s more dominant than she is based in the different sexes, just as she had always known living all her years with her father bossing her around and beating down her confidence. With that much experience beforehand, Rachel has learned not to give into her fear of being confronted by threat, by her dad at least.

Dreamfinder growls angrily at her saying “What would you know about that?

“Plenty, not that you would know.” Rachel calmly said.

“I’ve just about had it with your rude behavior. You’ve done nothing but complain throughout this entire journey, especially since we've arrived in the desert. I’ve taken you away with me and Figment from all of the cruelties the Earth has showered over you and this is how you repay us?”

“…”

“When we get back home to Earth, you’re going home.”

He then lets go of her collar and leads off back on the trail through the cave with Figment slowly following him. Those words vibrated in Dreamfinder’s mind and throat and Rachel’s mind and heart. She catches a lump in her throat, ready to scream at him if needed. As usual, she restrains herself and only lets down one tear, not bothering to wipe it off.

“Dreamfinder…” Figment began shyly. “You-You don’t really mean to send Rachel home, do you?”

“I do, Figment!” Dreamfinder shouted. “This time, I do!”

Torch in hand, he continues on speedily away from his two friends. Figment follows behind him with fear while Rachel lags behind. That certainly put Rachel at a great downfall. And who is really to blame for all of this. Sure, the bad attitude helped it along, but really she believes it’s all Yuna’s fault. If she had not showed up in Rachel’s life, she would not have gotten Rachel into this mess. Feeling anger inside her, Rachel takes her necklace and throws it at the back of Dreamfinder’s hat, making it tip over in front of him and get dirty. Dreamfinder grabs the hat to his head and then the necklace in his palm. He turns back to Rachel with the angriest look he has ever made on his face.

“You know,” Dreamfinder says calmly despite his anger, “ there's one thing you’ve always been right about: you have no imagination. You’re too stubborn to see what you really could be.” Looking at the necklace with his heart breaking into a thousand pieces, he says “[m]aybe I’ll find someone else who might be more appreciative and imaginative to my liking. Enough for her to deserve to wear this.” And with that, Dreamfinder put the necklace in his pocket and moves on, not noticing Yuna's presence in it or Rachel’s face cringing with defeat.

The three friends, well…one friend and two ex-friends, continue their, possibly last, pursuit in discovering what lies at the end of the cave. So far, nothing has happened, which has made this whole thing even more boring than it should be. After what seems like a half-hour of walking and spelunking, a feint green fog come around the corner floats towards the three adventurers from the waistline to the ceiling.

“Ugh! What is that stench!” Figment exclaims.

“Oh God! It smells like my grandmother’s pasta after 3 weeks mixed with a month-old boiled chicken, only ten times worse!” Rachel describes.

“Disgusting!”

“You’re right.” Dreamfinder coughed. “This is probably as far as we can go. We’ll have to turn back for fresh air.”

“O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-h…I don’t feel so good.” Figment groans.

“Yeah, me neither.” Rachel moans.

“It’s probably the fumes.” said Dreamfinder, who is also feeling sick to the stomach himself. “Come on now. Let’s get out before…before…”

Before Dreamfinder could finish his sentence, his eyes begin to blur quickly. Still he was able to see Figment faint and fall to the ground. Rachel is about to do the same, too. As she does, Dreamfinder tries to catch her from hurting herself. Perhaps there is still a little heart left in him after having that pointless argument against Rachel’s beliefs in Yuna’s existence and threatening to take her home. But it was too late. By the time Dreamfinder had extended his arms by an inch, Rachel has already fallen before him giving up to green infectious fog.

“No…Rachel…please…” Dreamfinder whispers and moans. “You…you have to stay…you have to stay…awake.”

Dreamfinder’s mind has capitulated to the mysterious fog where he, too, faints and falls between Rachel and Figment. The three of them are completely unconscious with their bodies still like death.

Slithering underneath the gaseous fumes, three unusual ‘arms’ appeared and wrapped themselves around each of the victims. With the three adventurers down from breathing on the fumes, they find themselves completely unaware of knowing the thought or feeling of what is dragging them deeper and deeper into the bowls of the cave and away from the light of the precious sun.


	23. Chapter 23

The fog in the cave aroused the dreams that have conjured in Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel’s minds. With their minds fully active, their bodies have become too numb and motionless to move. Nothing good or bad is happening to them at the moment; none of them can tell if anything is happening at all. They are not noticing themselves being dragged away by their legs and Figment’s small body. Their arms, upper halves of their bodies, and their heads dragged behind making a trail as they went along. Even the dirt of dirt running by their cheeks could not wake them up. If they would wake up, they would likely faint again from smelling the green gas above them. The lower and deeper into the cave they went, the heavier the dose of the gas is. At this point, there is no way of the three traveling adventurers to wake up and avoid whatever possible dangers lie ahead of them.

Some moaning grunts are heard from the three friends. Their closed eyes shut tight cringingly. Something must be happening in their dreams. Figment’s feint groans are probably the loudest at this point. He must be having a nightmare of some sort. His teeth clenched, his muscles and his eyes tightened, and his shoulders hunched a little.

In his dream, it starts with the first day he came to life; the day when Dreamfinder, before he became the Dreamfinder, built the Mesmonic Converter in his laboratory and summoned him with his imagination. The atmosphere is covered in smoke…a purple and black smoke. The results of his existence were unintentionally created by dream power made by Dreamfinder’s mind. The smoke is very thick, thick enough to cover all of London and only one foot ahead of you. The dragon trudges forward, waving his arms to pass through the smoke. He was at the center of the room when he spotted a dark silhouette in front of him staring out the window. He held the Mesmonic Converter in his hands. It was attached to a much larger contraption that stood behind Figment. 

It’s nighttime in London. The moon gleamed brightly over the city with stars glistening like glitter on a dark blue construction paper for kids. The light of the moon cast a shadow of the silhouette across the room, covering Figment with it. The candles and gas lamps are doused by the mild winds that blew the windows open. Papers on the desks that sat by the walls began to fly everywhere and the smoke clears away towards both sides of the room. As soon as Figment was able to get a good view of the person in front of him, he immediately recognized who it is.

The figure stood before in a tall and proud structure, yet the atmosphere around him has made him look eerie to look at. He turns around to face the imaginary dragon whose eyes widened at the sight. The expression on his face is grim with a menacing expression. His head of hair is a gingerly light brown, his mustache is thin, the beard in his chin is short and he wore glasses, too. His outfit is fully colored in the light and dark shades of blue that shined over him by the light of the full moon with the exception of a magenta dress coat and black shoes.

“Dreamfinder!” Figment called out happily. “Boy, am I glad to see you. I was worried about you fainting over that fog.”

“Indeed, Figment.” Dreamfinder said in a low and cold tone. “You’ve certainly made a big mess of things in my laboratory. There’s too much smoke in here.”

“Hey, how did we get back to London? And where is Rachel?”

“Rachel? That brat whom I’ve blindly taken away with me to love as my own only to have my heart broken by her? …She’s gone now.”

“G-Gone? You mean-you mean you really did bring her home?”

“Well…I wouldn’t say that.” Dreamfinder chuckled evilly. “But what does it matter now? She’s no longer my concern anymore…and neither will you.”

Dreamfinder cranks the dials on the Mesmonic Converter and places it over his head. Sparks began to fly out of the helmet in a frenzy as some of them caught onto the flying papers and catch on fire. Soon the whole room caught on fire along with the desks, the books in their bookshelves and walls that they covered. Fallen arch boards that once hung from the ceiling have blocked the doors at the other end of the room. The Dreamfinder laughed maniacally at the sight, but not as much as he did as he watches Figment getting caught up in his fear of his birthplace burning to ashes.

“Wha-? D-Dreamfinder! What are you doing?” Figment yelled.

“You’re the reason why I’ve failed to succeed the Mesmonic Converter,” Dreamfinder grunted evilly as he walks toward his creation, “the reason why I lost my job at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. You weren’t supposed to exist in this world. Just as you are named, you’re just a figment of my imagination, a common dream creation who was meant to be forgotten and doused away by reality forever. And yet it was not enough to convince Chairman Illocrant that my theories in proving the energy of the mind could be possible. Therefore, you are no use to me, nor were you ever any use to me.”

“But Dreamfinder, it is possible! Your theories are true! It was dream power made by you that brought me to life in this very room. It was even the dream power I was made out of that has powered the entire academy back in Florida after you faced and defeated the Doubtfinder! Remember?”

“You’re worthless, Figment! You’ve ruined everything! I wish I had never created you in my childhood at all!”

“Dreamfinder…” Figment gasps with his eyes widened at his creator’s insults. “You can’t possibly mean that?”

“Oh, I do, Figment. I do. Why should I care for a lowly piece of wasted space following me around infecting my life, my dreams, my work, my successes? There is no point in that. But don’t worry. Just like Rachel, it will all be over for you.”

“No, please…you’re my best friend! The only friend I’ve ever had!”

“I don’t care.”

“No, no…”

“Goodbye, Figment.”

As he continues his evil laugh Dreamfinder grabs onto Figment and pins in down to the floor. The sparks from the Mesmonic Converter have turned red and they shot out of the helmet furiously. They land on top of Figment where with them, pieces of Figment’s body begin to burn and dissolve. The poor purple dragon lay down helpless at the mercy of his creator and best friend, forming tears in his eyes for this betrayal as if everything they have done together was not worth it. More and more pieces of his body give out as bigger sparks continue to fall down on him. He lets out a terrible scream as Dreamfinder continues his cruel enjoyment in Figment’s demise. The pieces of him that burn off of the purple dragon have turned into puffs of purple ashes, not likely to resemble any form of dream power but shattered dreams. It’s the end of Figment.

“No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!”

********************************************************************************************************

Deep in the darkness of his mind, Dreamfinder lays flat on his back all alone. His consciousness has blurred him from the reality of what is dragging him and his friends into. The air is cold and time has stood still. The only thing he can feel is a gentle breeze whispering in his ears and brushing through his hair. His hand twitches slightly in his attempts to regain his senses. His eyes blink open, squinting and rubbing them to attain his vision. As he wakes up, the atmosphere turns into a pink-lit sky with pearl-coated clouds soaring above him. He sees strands of light green and light blue streaming and floating along with the soft winds as if they were tiny dragons slithering and swimming in an ocean of open air. Delicately feint yellow orbs and thin white stars float by in a slow pace and surround the Dreamfinder. The floor beneath him is covered with grass swaying back and forth by the winds. This has to be a dream world made by Dreamfinder’s imagination. Or could this possibly be real for him? Everything seems so real here it is uncanny. It cannot be, could it?

Ahead of him appears a beautiful woman clothed in a lavender slit silk dress, sleeveless on the arms and shows one of her legs below and her bare feet. His undivided attention shot straight at the woman along with her features. Her skin was of pale white and light cream. A ring of flowers is wrapped around her waistline. A veil drapes behind her ears and down her long and luscious light brown hair that has grown down to the backs of her calves. Her light brown eyes, half open with a slight glimpse of lust in them, gazed upon the Dreamfinder’s presence as he gets onto his feet to stand. Her smile brought a touch of warmness in the air directed at her visitor. And her necklace resembles an eight-pointed diamond star with a smaller four-pointed sapphire star in the middle chained in a sky blue silk ribbon. The woman walks to him slowly and gracefully, baffling Dreamfinder with each step she took. The closer she got to him, the easier it was for Dreamfinder to recognize her.

“Rachel?” Dreamfinder guesses.

“Sweetheart.” Rachel said lovingly.

“You…you look beautiful.”

“Thank you, my love. It’s all for you. You want me, don’t you?”

“I’m not so sure anymore.” he said with his arms crossed and his face scrunched. “You have been getting on my nerves lately with your cross behavior and you lying to me and Figment about this Yuna person existing where we can’t see her. I would have believed you if you’d say that she’s just an imaginary friend of yours whether or not she lives or breathes. But instead, you just HAD to make me angry, which is why I’m bringing you home as soon as we get back to Earth.”

“Aw…that’s a shame.” Rachel said as she circled him with her gaze not leaving Dreamfinder’s face. “I suppose that means you don’t love me anymore then.”

“How can I love you if you keep opposing me with these rude comments, insults and judgments? I’ve brought you with me to share an adventure with and perhaps have a relationship with because we both have so much in common in using our imaginations. I’ve been giving you whatever kindness I could give you to make you happy and these incredible experiences to help you forget about what had happened back on Earth the first time we met. I just don’t understand why you are treating me like this.”

“You don’t see me judging you now, do you?”

“No, but—”

“Or insulting you? Or bad-mouthing you?”

“No, I don’t. But—”

“Then why keep all this negativity inside you?” she asks calmly. “Why continue to see me as a bad person? A threat? An annoyance? What would I know about making you miserable when I’ve seen all of the goodness you’ve provided me so tenderly and courageously? I know your heart is good, pure, true and brave.”

“I’m glad you see that, Rachel, but you didn’t have to yell at me so much. Especially just now in the cave and the desert.”

“Suppose I said all those things to break you intentionally, which I suppose I might have said in reality.” she teaches. “Why do think I might have said them then?”

He shrugs.

“Perhaps…” she continues, “…perhaps it’s to help you understand me better, know my past better, know the kind of person I am. All this to help you learn how to handle me in such conditions in future times. Wouldn’t you think so?”

“Gee, I…I haven’t thought about that. I’m usually the one who thinks critically of things like science and scholar-related topics, but hardly with people.”

“So?”

“I suppose I may have been a little hard on you. Too hard if even. I don’t…I don’t really want to send you back home. I want you with me.” Dreamfinder takes off his hat as he says this, feeling guilt building up inside of him.

“Well, I’m here now.” Rachel says as she stops circling Dreamfinder. She faces him and places her hand on his chest with her eyes gazing into his glistening blue eyes. Her hands caress Dreamfinder’s cheek fondly to his beard and noticing how soft they both are comparatively. “I am at your mercy as you have always desired me to be. Take me. I am yours now.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Dreamfinder counters with a blush in his cheeks and taking a step backwards. “I feel this is going a little too fast for comfort if you know what I mean.”

“Perhaps, but you can’t resist me anymore, can you? This is our moment. Take advantage of it. This is your chance to claim me as your own forever.”

“Now when you say forever, you don’t actually mean ‘forever and ever’ forever, do you?”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“I’m just saying that maybe we should take this a little bit slower. You know, just a teensy bit?”

“Darling, you’re the Dreamfinder are you not?” she asked.

“Yes?” he answers.

“You command your own dreams in your head and see that they always come true whether it is to help yourself or to help others, right? Just as you have done in creating Figment and building your machines?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I? It’s part of what I do best, isn’t it?”

“Then why resist? You’ve dreamed of having me walk beside you, to cuddle me in your arms, warming me and singing to me with your heart beating into my body and soul, to kiss me at least once upon our lips, to run your fingers through my hair and feel its smooth silkiness, to make me love you for eternity. Perhaps even make me become your wife. The perfect wife you’ve desired and so deserved after constantly fighting battles that have you down to your knees in the end with no one to tend to your wounds despite your victories. All this you have thought of me to be since the moment you first saw me back home. Well here I am now, waiting for you to command me to do your bidding. Waiting for you to finally grasp me into your embrace in a world you’ve created just for us. Won’t you take me now and fill your life with a much greater happiness? Just for a little spell or two?”

“Well, I guess…I guess I could spend a moment with you just for a little while. That is since you really want me to. Still, I’m not going to go extreme with all of the—”

Before Dreamfinder could finish his sentence, Rachel throws her arms around his neck and kisses him by the lips. Unexpected at the instant reaction Dreamfinder drops his hat, grabs her by the waist and topples backwards to the grassy ground by her incredible force. Even at the crashing thud, Rachel’s lips would not leave his. Dreamfinder’s eyes widened with his adrenaline suddenly rushing through his pumping blood and building up in every molecule and joint in his body. This is something he has been waiting for a while now and Rachel is already one step ahead of him. He needs to catch up with her. Dreamfinder sits up with Rachel, quickly takes off his blue dress coat and wraps his arms around her waist. The kissing continues as he does this. To strengthen his dominance as a man, Dreamfinder rolls Rachel below him to the ground with him on top of her. He passionately kisses her by the lips still as he runs one of his hands behind her head into her hair and the other arm holding her close to him. To Rachel’s enjoyment, she gladly accepts his love without hesitation. She runs her fingers through Dreamfinder’s lush hair and feels his tender skin. She giggles at the touch of his lips onto her flesh as well as the tickling of his bread and mustache brushing by her neck. This may well be the happiest moment in Dreamfinder’s life.

Is it really?

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel’s heart beats fast as she runs through the darkened twilight of time and space that has trapped her in her mind. There is nothing around her. No floor, no ceiling, no walls, no source of light. It is as if Rachel is the only being alive in this realm. The faster she ran through this dark abyss, the faster her fears are beginning to crawl on her. She could not tell where she is going or what she is running from. She cannot talk to anyone since there is no one else here. She cannot hide anywhere since there are no objects or structures to cower behind. And even then, she cannot see what is making her run away. Whatever it is it’s chilling her heart and poking her painfully like a sharp icy icicle stabbing her through it. 

Finally out of breath, she stops running. Her knees became numb and weak to continue forth. Her breaths are heavy and loud. Her arms are twitching. Her feet weighed down like lead, as did her back adding onto it. Her eyes opened and closed and blurred out of weariness while her forehead has been drenched in sweat and dropped from her face into puddles. It has become a tough business running away in the dark and it is hard to tell which way she is going. There are no roads or signs to follow.

So Rachel decides to sit for a while. She has found it difficult all the same to stay in one spot while the darkness lingers to around her. It is weird to say this considering how Rachel had said earlier that she does not mind the dark because it helps her think clearly. That effect may work only when she is asleep. So why isn’t that same process working for her now? 

“Rachel?”

Suddenly a voice echoes in the darkness. Rachel’s eyes light up instantly and she immediately searches them around for the source. There is no one here. Normally, she had been hearing voices from Yuna coming from her necklace, but this voice is different. It sounds nothing like Yuna; it is a man’s voice. It sounds familiar to Rachel. Otherwise she would not be frantically tossing her head around in finding where the voice had come from.

But then a light illuminated in front of her. It shined brightly in a natural fiery appearance; only this kind of fire is not natural at all. Inside the fire sat a dark silhouette on its knees. Its eyes glowed brightly in a fury. Its arms are stretched apart as if they are chained against a wall. The silhouette’s appearance became easier to see, as it got closer to Rachel. Just as she thought, the voice had come from a man. He had a bushy beard that was five times bigger than Dreamfinder’s. His eyebrows are also bushy but look as if the fires he is surrounded with are singeing them. His shirt, coat and pants have been burned and torn to shreds. He’s lost a shoe that revealed his foot completely covered and tied with bandages. A few of the spots in those bandages have been stained with dry blood. The glasses he once wore are now broken and a placed into his pockets. His figure is pretty stout, but through his torn shirts his ribcage was visible to see. Physically, he strangely resembles the Dreamfinder in some way.

“Rachel…” the voice said.

“Uncle Eli?” Rachel guessed.

“Why?”

“I-I…I…”

“I had given you the power to use the sparks for good…to inspire others to do the same with their imagination. I was certain…that you would carry on with this legacy.” Then in an angered tone, he said, “But you’ve done nothing!”

“No, Eli! Nebulus has been haunting me all the time! I can’t use it with him watching me!”

The fires that engulfs Eli grow bigger and bigger before Rachel. They surround her furiously and trap her in a fiery ring with her at the center. Eli’s spirit grows taller as his irritation becomes more intense. Rachel stands there in awe, sweating herself with stress and fear. She could not take her eyes away from the horrors that are being displayed to her.

“I don’t understand.” Eli shouts. “You were the only person who could have saved me from this cursed fate! Why didn’t you save me?”

“Eli…" Rachel gasps. “I was six! I was scared! I didn’t know what to do!”

“He has destroyed everything I worked for because of you! He's imprisoned me to be tormented by his hand and let the sparks of imagination be taken for his own dark intentions, and all you’ve ever done was run away! I’ve given you all of my hopes and dreams and you’ve just tossed them aside like they were worthless to you.”

“No! I never thought of them as worthless, but wonderful ideas to be shared. Please! Another chance! Please give me another chance to try!”

"YOU’VE ABADONED YOUR DESTINY! YOU’VE FORSAKEN ME!”

“No! Uncle Eli!”

Eli’s form changes into a titanic body of fire. Screeching roars have pierced the throughout the darkened heavens and into Rachel’s ears. The ground shook and began to crumble. With each crack that had splintered, tips and walls of fire flickered and burst out before her. Soon a majority of the ground became rocky platforms that cliff alongside each other. Rachel struggles to keep her balance on the platform she had been trapped on. Rachel then watches Eli summon demonic dragon-like beings to spurt out of the cracks that led down to the pits of hell. Many of them resembled the figure of evil Figments. As more and more of the devils appeared, they crawl beside their master and surround the frightened young woman. She turns all over the surrounding area and sees that she is trapped. A certain amount of the creatures climbed upon Eli. As they did, they all morphed together into an even larger monstrosity.

The figure that has now taken form appears as an elf-like person. Its skin is naturally gray, but it bursting with red shaded colors from the fires. The eyes are deep set mature with pupils as thin as a cat’s, glowing red irises, and the sclera totally yellow defining the evilly sick personality it poses. They shot down straight at Rachel where it revealed her reflection that had filled her to her deepest fears. It’s devilish smile opened with purplish-red flame burning and inflaming by its throat and shined onto its black teeth that were as razor sharp as swords.

Rachel turns back towards the rectified figure where she had watch transform with horror in her yes. She now stands at the base of Hell. Could this creature be the master of the underworld? Somehow, Rachel actually knows this person, which frightens her even more. An abomination that has haunted her in her childhood has now returned to finish its work in forcing Rachel to commit to her fears. The roars and screeches continue to fill the air and break the girl’s hearing. The demons dance around its demonic master. Wherever these freaks have come from, they have turned Rachel’s imagination into a living nightmare.

Above the scene appears a symbol engraved in red on a black diamond rock. Rachel recognized the symbol immediately: it is the symbol of Spaceship Earth! It rose to the heavens above the demonic creature. The creature raises its arms and commands the hellish fires to rise and shine through the diamond. The fires reflected toward each angle inside the diamond where they end up forming into one beam. The beam strikes down to the ground and aims its way towards Rachel. When the light engulfs Rachel whole, she lets out a terrifying scream and runs away.

The creature points its long black cracking finger to Rachel, signaling its minions to chase after her. And they did. The girl’s heart had beat faster and faster as she tries to escape from the apprehensions that have entered her mind. 

Run, Rachel! Run!

That voice belonged to Yuna, and it’s definitely a voice that Rachel was glad to hear once again. It's better to here Yuna’s voice beckoning her in the darkness than to hear the demon’s voice and be consumed by it. Yuna’s sprite form appears just ahead of Rachel ready to give her relief from this nightmare. 

Faster, Rachel! Run faster! Don’t look back! Keep running!

Rachel’s breath was about to give out. Her energy decreases from her tired legs and her lungs ready to explode. She gasps loudly with each step she stomps upon. Looking behind her, the demon and its minions are right on her tail. She extends her arm out to Yuna as the demon tries to grab her into its palms. Running faster, she avoids the demon’s grip and touches Yuna’s aura. When she did this, the light of the sprite engulfs her. With incredible force, the demons have all been pushed away out of reach from obtaining their prize victim.

“Yuna!” Rachel shouts.

“Rachel! You have to wake up!” Yuna said as she calls to her in the light. “This is only a nightmare. There is a much greater danger occurring to you and your friends right now!”

Another waves of screaming screeches roars through the air, deafening Rachel of her hearing. She plugs them tightly and falls to her knees praying in her mind for the shrieks to stop. Thankfully, they have stopped. Rachel looks up to Yuna with fear written all over her face. 

“What the heck was that?” Rachel cried.

“That, my friend, is the real danger happening.” said Yuna. “Rachel, you must wake up from this terrible dream if you are to save your friends from being eaten.”

“Eaten? Eaten by what?”

“It’s too horrible to say in words.”

“I-I can’t. I’m afraid! I can’t do it!”

“No Rachel, don’t let your fears overwhelm you again. Just tell yourself that this all just a dream and wake yourself up.”

“But—”

“Hurry! There isn’t much time.”

“…This…this is just a bad dream.” Rachel whimpers fearfully. “This is just a bad dream. Come on, Rachel. Wake up. This is just a bad dream. You gotta wake up. Wake up!”

Even in Yuna’s presence, she fears all too much. Her thoughts are directed towards the past when she was humiliated back the D23 expo and then where she got fired from her job. Her abusive father also enters her mind ranting at her about how big of a failure she is. And finally, she pictures Dreamfinder’s face appearing to her calling her a liar and remembers his threats of taking her home where all of her suffering has originated. Looking over Rachel’s defeated soul, Yuna sees that the fears Rachel had conjured up has attracted the demons to come back again. It is hopeless for Rachel to escape now. The fears are too powerful for her to overcome alone.

“Rachel?” Yuna spoke calmly.

Rachel lifts her head to Yuna. Tears have cascaded down her face as more of her fears continue to appear and hover over her in torment. The sprite extends her arm out to touch her hand onto Rachel’s cheek. In the process, her sprite form becomes more humanlike than before. Her hair is the same colors as her sprite form that lengthens down to the top of her spine. Her eyebrows are thin and naturally colored in violet purple. The sclera in her eyes are of light blue like the afternoon sky with her irises as green as grass. She is thin by the waist and her posture is well balanced. Her face is classically beautiful with her small upturned nose, medium-seized ears and small pink lips. By far, she has become the most beautiful women Rachel has ever seen in her entire life. And that beautiful woman is touching her cheek out of sympathy.

“Do you need help?” Yuna asked.

Without thinking, Rachel nodded vigorously. Any help is desperately needed for her cause. Yuna takes her hands and holds onto Rachel’s head with her thumbs pressing onto her forehead. The gentle touch of Yuna’s hands shocked Rachel. Both of her eyes widened real big at the realization of how soft Yuna’s skin is in human form. The hands glowed in a sparkling blue haze. Rachel closes her eyes gently. Her tears have lessened but still fell down her cheeks. The wrinkles that had formed on her face into creases have smoothed out in calmness. At Yuna’s mercy, she felt safe.

“Let go of your fear now, dear one.” Yuna cooed. “I will not let your demons take you.”

“It’s only a dream…” Rachel whispered. “It’s only a dream…it’s just a dream…”

As she says this, one last tear falls from Rachel’s eyes. Only this time, the tear glittered in silver. It trails down past her nose and fell to the ground. The demons behind her were inches away from touching either of the two women when the teardrop landed and made a crack out of the darkness. A blinding light shines into the darkened world as the crack keeps getting bigger and bigger. The demons hiss and cower away from the light that is protecting Rachel from being touched again by their cold chilling grasp. All of the fears that Rachel had kept, Uncle Eli, her father, the Dreamfinder’s anger, and the memories of her failures, have cleared away dissolving into millions of little silvery dots of glitter, or magic as Yuna would prefer it. Yuna takes Rachel’s hands and hums softly, making the effect of the light to glow brighter and the escape from the bad dream much faster. Finally, the light bursts out of the cracks and overcomes all of the evils and darkness in the realm of Rachel’s imagination. 

 

Free from all of this madness, she finally wakes up.

 

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel’s eyes slowly blink open as she wakes up from was once a horrendous nightmare. She yawns with her mouth opened widely and shakes her head a little. An itch starts annoying her on forehead. As she tries to move her hand to scratch, she realizes that she cannot. She cannot feel herself move at all. Her arms and legs are bound tight as if she has been tied onto something like a hostage. Yuna, now back into her sprite form, floats beside her and tries to unbind Rachel from whatever is holding her. Rachel looks down below her and finds something big and squishy.

“Hey…is this…is this a tentacle?” Rachel asked.

The tentacle that has wrapped her up tightly is large and thick with little cups sucking onto her body inside. She feels a strange gooey liquid seeping through her clothes from the tentacle and noticed she had gotten some on her face, too. As Yuna tries to wipe the goop off of her cheeks, Rachel trails her eyes to where the tentacle is coming from. When she found the source, she shrieks.


	24. Chapter 24

The shrieks have echoed throughout the room of a den where Rachel and her friends have been taken. Stalagmites and stalactites tower and dangle from the ceiling and the floor below. Along with them, dark colored sand dunes are piled all around as well as stacks of remained carcasses of beings who have previously visited the cave and have been tragically devoured. A green haze is floating in the atmosphere, much like the one Rachel and her friends inhaled when they got deeper into the cave. It definitely smells the same and the consistency is much thicker down here. The den is dark all around with no source of light except for the light of the eyes of the creature the tentacle holding Rachel belongs to, to which Rachel felt the need scream at.

Below her is a horrific creature unlike anything she has ever seen. The eight tentacles that resemble the amount of an octopus’ rise up to the ceiling are connected to a giant clump of a purple flesh being. It has eleven yellowy eyes circling around its two-layered mouth. The outer layer holds a 360° row of decayed claw-shaped teeth, white the center of the creature holds a giant squid-like beak as black as obsidian with teeth as red as blood. Out of that beak comes its long tongue that looks sharp enough to whip a person to death in one blow. Underneath the whole thing is its sack-like body. Its purple flesh grosses Rachel out to where she would want to throw up. Green veins pop out in pulses pumping outwardly. Right in between the sack and the mouth are its seven purple spidery legs with black tips. If there is one thing that Yuna has been right about, it is that the creature is much too horrible to say in words.

Two of the other tentacles aside from the one Rachel is bound in are holding the unconscious Dreamfinder and Figment. For Figment’s small body, the tentacle holds him wholly like a boa constrictor catching its prey. That is pretty much what he is at this point anyway. His little face looks more green that royal purple due to the green foggy haze floating everywhere. It sulks droopily with gloom and defeat that he looks sick enough to throw up as well. All that is left visible for Rachel to see him out of the tentacle is his head, shoulders and the tip of his tail with the two little orange rods on both sides. She could not tell if Figment is breathing still of if the tentacle has taken all the wind out of that poor little dragon.

Dreamfinder, on the other hand, looks more relaxed than sick or worse, dead. Three layers of the one tentacle holding him are covering his torso. The tip of the tentacle rubs all over Dreamfinder’s face covering him with the goop that is also seeping through his clothes. The cups attached to it gently press onto his cheeks as they are being mistaken for soft kisses. His head now lies on the tentacle’s tip and he turns his face toward the cups. The goop that is gushing from those cups soak through his beard and mustache to every particle of his flesh. Thinking that the cups are something else in his little dream world, the Dreamfinder smiles a bit. It was definitely enough for Rachel to turn away from his view and puke in disgust.

“Aw sick!” Rachel shouted with disgust. “What the heck is that?”

“Abiteth.” Yuna said grimly.

“Abiteth?”

“Abiteth the Desert Crab of Deshandjah. Abiteth means devourer.”

“Should I even ask what Abiteth intends to do with me and my friends?”

“You could, but it will only sound redundant to do so.”

“Dreamfinder! Figment! Wake up!” Rachel screams.

Neither Dreamfinder nor Figment can hear Rachel calling to them. They must have inhaled too much of that green fog into a deep coma. And there is a lot more of it floating about in this den than back around the swirling cave. Abiteth holds Figment far up towards the ceiling while he starts to slowly lower Dreamfinder towards its hungry beak. Each of them looks lifeless enough to be dead. It is even hard for Rachel to tell if their movements are them squirming in their dreaming or if they are just dangling around with a pulse.

Frantically, Rachel searches around her for anything she can use to wake up her friends. All there is are the stalactites hanging like a wall of large icicles. One of them looks like it might fall at anytime. With the right amount of force, it can break and fall to the ground. Rachel pulls one arm free out of Abiteth’s grip. With all her might, she tries to swing towards the weak stalactite. Her legs wrap around the upside-down pointed rock as she grabs her arm onto another for stability.

“Yuna,” Rachel called, “you go see if you can wake up Figment. I’m gonna try break this and throw it down before Dreamfinder becomes fish bait.” As soon as Yuna is gone, Rachel mumbles, “I swear, I’ve been the only one who’s saving everyone’s asses on this trip. I mean really!”

Yuna scurries through the air to Figment while Rachel starts breaking the stalactite. She dodges the tentacles that wave at her direction. The sprite gets whacked by one of them before she was able to reach the fainted purple dragon. She spins in tiny circles, dizzy from the creature’s hit. Snapping out of her confusion, Yuna continues her dodging and arrives at Figment’s side. She tries bouncing on him, pulling his eyelids open, and tickling his nose to make him sneeze. Nothing seems to work.

Unaware of being lowered to the jaws of Abiteth, Dreamfinder’s mind remains numb and his body motionless. His pale face is covered with the beast’s ooze as it seeps into his skin. The smile on his face still remained little due to his dreams. It is irritating for Rachel wondering how Dreamfinder could sleep and dream at a time like this. All the more reason to keeping kicking onto the loose stalactite.

********************************************************************************************************

“Oh, Dreamy.” said Rachel in a giggly, loving tone as she plays her finger beside Dreamfinder’s beard.

The fog from the cave has Dreamfinder still trapped in his fantasies. He happily continues to dream of the girl in a lovely dress, lying beside with her arms crossing over his torso and her head upon his chest. With his hat sitting on the other side of him, the Dreamfinder lets the pink-skied winds gently flow through his bright-colored hair. His eyes, half closed, watches Rachel cuddling her cheek over his right side. His mustache-covered mouth smiles to his enjoyment and sitting beside the woman he loves. His right arm is wrapped over her shoulder, hugging her closer to him as possible. And his back is against a soft stone of a rock firmly holding his weight without giving it out. 

The grass flows and sways with the wind. Along with it, an array of flowers and green leaves fly calmly over them. Dreamfinder catches one of the flowers with his free hand and sticks it into Rachel’s hair. He catches of them and decorates the girl’s hair, delighting himself to the giggles she provides with every flower he deposits. Rachel then takes Dreamfinder’s wrist and places his hand onto her head and cheek. Somehow, she finds great comfort in having her head being felt by a large and soothing hand such as Dreamfinder’s. Her eyes close slowly and softly. She begins to sleep quietly on her lover’s chest, tempting Dreamfinder to do the same.

“Are you always so troubled, Rachel?” Dreamfinder asked.

He had to admit, as much as he enjoys witnessing Rachel’s tenderness whether it is in dreams or reality, the reality that clouds over that tenderness confuses him. While in dreams, and occasionally in reality, Rachel becomes the sweetest and purest individual Dreamfinder has ever met. In reality, however, she feels to need to be bitter with words to him almost every single time. It makes him wonder how he had ever come to love someone who feels so angry and upset inside of her and with not much imagination to go around. Is it simply just for the sake of her beauty? Is Rachel hiding away her imagination from him and the world?

“Do you think I’m troubled, Dreamfinder?” Rachel asked, keeping her smile intact.

“Not in the sense of being mentally crazy, just to be perfectly clear with you.” Dreamfinder clarifies. “I’m just…I’m just worried that your past, if your past has caused you to feel something terrible inside of you. Seeing as how you’ve insulted me and judged me from time to time. Is it?”

“…” She said nothing.

“You are right. I should learn about you more to understand you better. You can tell me anything that’s bothering you. Is it your father? Or you getting fired from your job the day we met? Is it you running away with Figment and me so your father would not yell at you again? I have to know.”

“I can’t tell you, dearest.” Rachel finally spoke. “Not now anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Why ruin what we have here now with an unforgivable past? There is nothing I want to bring up that will only bring us to both of our discomforts.”

“I can understand that, but I want to hear it anyway. If I don’t hear what you need to say to me so long as we love each other, how can I make you happy?”

“Just staying here enjoying each other’s company and the view of the sky makes me happy enough. We just need to keep happy thoughts in life.”

“You can’t always bear happiness without sadness, Rachel.” Dreamfinder points out. “Deep down, your imagination is haunting you for whatever reason there is. I’ve been seeing it through your eyes every time you’ve used it to fly. Why?”

“You sound irritated, Dreamfinder.” said Rachel with concern.

“I have a right to be. For all the times you’ve saved me, you’ve been feeling gloomy about it. Do you want me to die?”

“No! Never!”

“Then why? Why do you me shut me out of your life when I’m showing you mine? Why do you shut the world out? What are you so afraid of?”

“ENOUGH!” Rachel screams.

Shocked at the outburst, Dreamfinder stays quiet. Rachel huffs and puffs in her panting, feeling anger building inside her just as she has been in the real world. Her face blushes to a bright red color. Her eyebrows scrunch down with her eyes shrinking smaller with intensity. And her fists tightened and shook vigorously. She is definitely not happy.

“Don’t make me the enemy you see me as, Dreamfinder.” Rachel growls. She then cries softly, “I’m only here to love you in your dreams. You’ve made this world to fill each of our hearts with happiness, and that’s what I intend to do here. Don’t ruin what you’ve created for us, please. I beg you.”

The look in Dreamfinder’s eyes blurs with a saddening pitiful feeling. Tears are beginning to swell in his eyes are he watches Rachel’s shut tightly. He didn’t know what to do. He cannot tell whether he should continue harping Rachel to tell him her problems or to sit quietly. His eyes then blink at what Rachel just said, something about him dreaming. 

“Dreams… This is a dream?” Dreamfinder realizes. 

“Let me love you more, Dreamfinder.” Rachel cries in begging, as she tries to lean over Dreamfinder for another kiss. “Let me have you forever.”

“No…Rachel, stop. No more! Not until you—” 

But Rachel kisses Dreamfinder anyway. This time, unlike her other kisses, she leaves a little of her spit on his cheek with each kiss. With ease, she continues to do so not paying attention to the force Dreamfinder is trying to push her away with.

“Ugh, gross Rachel!” Dreamfinder says in disgust. “You’re getting my face wet. Stop it!”

“No!” Rachel yells as she pulls onto Dreamfinder’s collar to get him closer. “You’re mine! Mine!”

“Rachel, stop! I mean it! No! No!”

The kisses provided are beginning to flood the Dreamfinder’s face. At first he finds the kisses enjoyable to his desire, but now they keep giving him more and more reasons to back away from. The spit-drooling kisses are definitely on the top of the list.

********************************************************************************************************

Dreamfinder’s head shakes vigorously as he tries to wake up. His teeth are clenched and his forehead scrunched with the painful grip of Rachel’s anger and desperate tone that had resurrected and grabbed hold of him in his mind. Along with his head, he starts to shake his whole self. He could not move much of it considering he is bounded tight in one of Abiteth’s tentacle. 

Up above him, Rachel is still kicking the stalactite. Her grip on another is beginning to lose quickly with Abiteth struggling to pull her away. This makes her more frustrated and determined to get her plan to work. She kicks the stalactite harder and harder. Bits of the ceiling rock have been reduced to pebbles falling downward into the mouth of the creature.

Three of those pebbles fall hard enough to hit onto Dreamfinder’s head. On the third pebble, he finally wakes up. His vision has gone blurry and goopy-looking. He notices how he can’t move his arms or even kick his legs. The goop is blinding him of what is going on around him. He shakes his head in a frenzy to disdain it from him. Once enough of the goop what off of his face, he finally sees that he is inches away from getting his head eaten off of him.

“EEEEEEEK! What is this?” Dreamfinder screams. “Figment?! Rachel?!”

“Up here!” Rachel shouts from above.

“Rachel! Where’s Figment?”

“He’s over there! By those other pointy rocks on the ceiling! Dreamer, you’ve gotta get out of there!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

As he says this, Dreamfinder thrusts both of his legs forward and lands his feet onto the monster’s beak-like jaws. The tentacle is pushing him into its mouth, but Dreamfinder struggles to keep himself up. He cringes at the touch of the oncoming goop that keeps dropping and plopping on him. Though it may not be recognized well enough through the goop, the vomit Dreamfinder would spill out would most likely stand out.

Yuna’s attempts to wake Figment up have fruitlessly gone nowhere. The poor dragon is way too drunk with the green fog to snap himself back into consciousness. She then notices that a majority of the fog is flowing up and around at the ceiling where the Abiteth has bounded Figment in its grasp. Yuna leaves Figment and heads down the tentacle that is holding him. She rapidly spins around it like a tornado shedding the after-burn of the greatest of temperatures onto the tentacle. The temperature is rising, making hotter and hotter for the creature to cope with. Too hot, to make it drastic. The Abiteth screams and flinches the tentacle with Figment down and away from the ceiling. The sprite returns to Figment seeing his royal purple face less cringed and calmer. She bounces on his head to the point where Figment’s eyes begin to blink open.

“Oooooooh…what happened? Dreamfinder?” Figment groans. Then he gasps “YIKES!” Figment sees the Abiteth grabbing holding of himself and his friends. He screams “Eek! Dreamfinder! Where are you?”

“Down here, Figment!” Dreamfinder called out.

“Dreamfinder! What’s going on?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re about to be eaten by this…this…thing!”

“Hang on, buddy! I’m coming!”

"No, Figment! Don't-!"

With all of his might, the dragon wrings himself free from the tentacle. Compared to Dreamfinder and Rachel’s human sizes, it is becoming difficult for Figment to squeeze out with his own small size. The ooze from Abiteth keeps spurting out from its suckers keeps drooping all over Figment’s back, which has made Figment squirm around by an inch or two. That is when Figment thought that he could use the ooze to his advantage. He continues to squeeze out of the tentacle using the ooze as a kind of grease. Left and right, up and down the dragon wiggles out until finally, he’s freed from the Abiteth only to fall straight down to the monster’s beak where Dreamfinder struggles to stand out of. The Dreamfinder catches his purple friend in his arms and holds him tight, not letting his legs and knees twist and fall into the creature’s mouth.

“I told you I’d come.” Figment smiled.

“Peachy.” Dreamfinder groans. “Quick, Figment! Fly us out of this!”

“But you’re too heavy for me to carry alone. Try to think of…uh…springs? Yeah! Springing feet! So we can spring our way out!”

“Springy feet—springy feet—springy feet—mattress springs, curly springs, bouncy springs, metal springs, SPRINGS—SPRINGS—SPRINGS!”

So far, nothing happens. His mind is too distracted in becoming lunch for rational thought. He stiffens his legs on both sides of the creature’s beak to keep from being eaten while Figment clings onto Dreamfinder for dear life. Without the power of imagination to help them, all hope is fading fast.

The stalactite is loosening greatly with Rachel’s harsh kicks. She finally breaks it and catches it between her legs. It’s a lot heavier than she thought it would be. The tentacle holding Rachel lowers down from the heavy weight but then tries to lift itself back up, giving Rachel the perfect altitude to carry out her plan. Her hands grab onto her backside that is covered by the tentacle. With all the force she has, she pulls herself up lifting her legs and the stalactite above her. She then aims the tip of the chuck of rock towards the center of Abiteth’s body where Dreamfinder and Figment are struggling to escape.

“EVERYBODY JUMP!” she shouts.

Rachel throws the rock down directly towards Dreamfinder and Figment’s position. They look up to the giant stalactite with wide eyes. They could not tell if Rachel is trying to save them or hurt them. Now was not the time to think about it. In a frenzy the two companions jump off of Abiteth just in time for the stalactite to collide with it. It falls into the creature’s mouth and the creature begins to choke and squeal. The Dreamfinder and his dragon fall upon the sandy dunes. Beside them is a man’s skeleton that has been previously chewed and teethed on. With one look, a twinge of fear struck them both. If they do not act fast, it won’t be long for the skeleton to be provided some company. 

They sprint off away from the skeleton in an instant heartbeat. Because the stalactite is choking Abiteth to death, its nerves begin to give out and lose its stability to stand. The creature falls backwards onto Dreamfinder and Figment, whom by a thread escape with their lives.

All that is left is for Rachel to get down. Because of Abiteth’s fall, it lets go of Rachel from one of its tentacles. Rachel falls down fast, screaming along the way, and lands onto another sand dune. Yuna’s sprite form flies to Rachel’s side faster than lightning. From behind, she tries to lift the girl back to her feet. But just as Yuna was about to lose her strength, Dreamfinder pulls Rachel up to him without seeing the sprite and with Figment following behind them. Yuna speedily follows the three friends as well in their escape.

“Come on!” Dreamfinder shouts. “Let’s get out of here while that thing is down.”

“Look!” Figment points out behind them.

The Abiteth is squirming around trying to get the stalactite out of its beak mouth. With so many tentacles about, they are likely enough to help it get out and continue trying to capture its lunch.

“That rock trap is not going to last very long.” Rachel said. “We need something else to divert its attention for a longer while.”

“Hmm…oh! I got an idea!” Dreamfinder says with excitement. “Wait here and take cover.”

“Dreamfinder, what are you doing?” Figment calls out.

But Dreamfinder ignores him. He runs halfway across between his friends and the monster. The monster’s eyes glanced towards what might likely be a small snack for it to nibble on. While it is still choking from Rachel’s rock, it starts using its tentacles to drag itself to where Dreamfinder is boldly standing. But then, at the top of his lungs, Dreamfinder screams very loudly. Somehow, the vibrations of his voice echoing and bouncing off the walls are affecting the stalactites to shake, crumble and fall right over the Abiteth. Rachel and Figment decide to join their friend in their choir of screams. More and more stalactites fall over the monster, landing on it and turning it into a log pile of broken pillars.

Dreamfinder turns his head to Rachel, finally seeing a smile on her face after a long while of augmenting and screaming, right now especially. Remembering what he said about the cave walls being made of different minerals, he says, “It wasn’t calcium, but I had to test it out anyway.”

That definitely won a chuckle from Rachel. For once, the Dreamfinder had decided to put Rachel’s plan in action on his own. Now the only matter is how to get out of here.

The only way out of the cave and away from Abiteth is through the archway ahead of them. Half of the arch is blocked while a pile of rocky rubble that had fallen down from the ceiling. As they get there, Figment flies over the rubble while Rachel Dreamfinder climbs it. Just as they land to the other side and run through the archway for their escape, the creature chomps off the stalactite into small stones. It finds it prey missing, making his appetite all the more aggravating. Back on its crab-like spider legs, it starts charging after our adventurers.

The climb back up through the cave has become more exhausting than it is going downward. What’s worse than that is the green fog still floating about on their way up; the same spot where Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel fainted together and gotten themselves into this mess.

“We can’t get through this fog again while it’s still thick.” Dreamfinder pants.

“Quick! Start imagining yourselves wearing a gas mask to get through this safely.” Rachel shouted, only to once again receive a confused look from both of her friends. Realizing what that is all about, she then shouted, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT A GAS MASK IS EITHER?! FOR REAL?!”

“Do we look like we have time to think about what a gas mask is right now?” Dreamfinder shouts.

“Arrrgh! FINE! I’m imagining three gas masks to appear in my hands! One for each of us!”

But nothing happens. The gas masks are not appearing as Rachel had imagined they would. Then she remembered.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouts. “My necklace! You have my necklace! I need it!”

“Oh right!” Dreamfinder shouts. He reaches into his pocket, but then says, “Hey, wait a minute! You’re not thinking that getting this back would mean that I’m changing my mind about sending you home, are you?”

“Dude, really?”

“Dreamfinder!” Figment shouts, amazed to hear Dreamfinder speak with such suspicion.

“Well, what am I supposed to believe now?” Dreamfinder asks. “You chose to throw this back to me at my head me with your anger.”

“You’re choosing now of all times to get back at me with that while that squid…spider…thing is about to chase us to our deaths?” Rachel shouts with disbelief. “Are you frickin’ serious?!”

“There you go again with the anger!”

“I’m just trying to get us out of here while not breathing this gas again! Can’t you see that?”

“But Rachel—”

“DREAMFINDER!” Figment explodes, surprising Dreamfinder to a state of shock as Figment’s creator. “YOU GIVE THAT NECKLACE BACK TO RACHEL NOW, OR SO HELP ME I’M LEAVING WITH RACHEL WITH YOU BEHIND FOR THAT MONSTER TO EAT YOU UP! AM I CLEAR?”

Without thinking, and without a single peep coming out of his mouth, Dreamfinder immediately digs through his pocket and gives the necklace back to Rachel. It’s not like Figment to shout at him that way. In fact, it’s not like Figment to shout at Dreamfinder at all! He’d shout back to his purple friend of he could, but like Rachel said, now was not the time for foolish things.

“Thank you.” Rachel says as she receives the necklace back. Triggered by Rachel’s imagination, the necklace glows a bright blue in her hands. “I wish for three fitting gas masks to appear in my hands. One for each of us!”

As intended, the gas masks appear in a flash. Rachel quickly gives Dreamfinder back the necklace as well as a gas mask of his size. Confused as to why she gives the necklace back, he puts it back in his jacket pocket, takes off his hat and puts the gas mask on. His throat begins to feel relief as he breaths the fresh oxygen and not the green gas fog. He finds Rachel and Figment doing the same. So this is what a gas mask is.

The Abiteth’s roars echo behind the three adventurers, signaling them of his horrifyingly upcoming presence. Now is not the time to argue or ask questions anymore. 

“Let’s go!” Rachel calls out.

Everyone starts running through the fog with their gas masks on. Their veins and nerves are tingling with anxiety as they hear the Abiteth getting closer and closer behind them. The creature continues to roar very loudly. The roars vibrate throughout the cave making the stalactites shake and fall and the stalagmites crumble into a pile of rocks. The creature is hot on their tail. The group tries to run faster and faster away from man-eating beast. Finally, they spot a ray of light illuminating brightly like the sun. At last they find the way out safely away from the Abiteth. Or are they? 

********************************************************************************************************

Alex had been waiting for his friends to come back out of the cave for waiting. He spent his an hour alone practicing to swim until he got finally got bored. He decided to take a bucket and fill the Dream Machine’s water supply with the water from the oasis; enough to last the whole group about two to three weeks worth of both showering and drinking it. Just as he was sweating enough to jump back into the oasis, he hears a chorus of loud shouting echoing from the cave.

The Katkin’s host and his friends come running out of the cave in a panic mode. They all take off their masks in an instant, taking instant relief of being outside in the sun and revealing their faces panting and sweating from running for who knows ho long. Only Dreamfinder out of the three started coughing from being out of breath, but he could not stop running away from what is chasing after them in the cave.

“Alex!” Dreamfinder cried in panic with his sweat pouring out of his forehead.

“Hey guys!” Alex calls back in a cheerful tone, not realizing what is happening. “Check it out! I filled up the water supply. It should last all of us for a couple of weeks.”

“That’s great, Alex, but you’ve got to get onto the Dream Machine! NOW!”

“Why? What did you do?”

“Monster!” Figment cries.

“Monster?” 

“No time to explain. Get on!” Dreamfinder shouts.

Dreamfinder quickly grabs onto Alex’s arm and pulls him away from the oasis and onboard the Dream Machine. What is going on, Alex thought to himself. One moment, he is enjoying the cool water and swimming in it for the first time in his life. The next moment, he is being taken away form it like it’s a serious danger zone. With everyone safely aboard the Dream Machine, Dreamfinder sets the controls to make the airship go up. But it’s not working. The Dream Machine didn’t even lift a budge off the sand.

“Dude! Why isn’t it working?” Rachel shouted.

“It’s the heat!” Dreamfinder replies. “The engines must be too hot to operate.”

“Maybe we can cool it down with the oasis water.” Figment suggested.

“No, I’m not letting anyone go back down there where they’ll likely get killed by the monster! We’ll use some of the water Alex had collected to cool it. Alex, you stay here and cover me in case the thing comes to attack. Figment, you fetch some water and see if you can cool off the engines while I get it started. Rachel, you go hide in your bedroom and wait until it’s safe to come out.”

No, no, no, no. I am not going to hide.” Rachel stated.

“Rachel, I’m not going to arg—”

“Look! I’m the one who suggested we’d go spelunking. I threw the rock down to the creature’s mouth. I imagined us some gas masks to appear. This is all my responsibility. I’m fighting this! No arguments!”

“…Fine, but I want you near me where it’s safe. Alex, you go guard Figment as he’s pouring the water.”

“Gotcha!” Alex says. 

“C’mon, Alex! Let’s go!” Figment says as he flies off to the water supply with Alex following him and leaving Dreamfinder alone with Rachel.

“You’d better hurry!” Dreamfinder calls out. He then says in a fearful monotone voice, “It’s coming.”

And right he was. As Dreamfinder says this, he hears the Abiteth monster shrieking its cries out from the cave. Alex and Figment fins the water supply inside the cabin behind a pantry cabinet in the kitchen. They take a bucket and start filling it with some of the water Alex had collected hours before. Alex finds a cutting knife in the draw and takes it for himself as a weapon in case of an attack. Figment then leads Alex to the engine at the center of the area of the Dream Machine. Sitting next to the engine there is a coolant pipe. With that, they can cool the engine from bursting into hot flames. With Alex covering his friend by the back, Figment starts pouring the water into the pipe.

Rachel then remembered that she had just given Dreamfinder back the necklace after making the gas masks appear, but she did not think of using it to wield a weapon for herself. It would be rude of her to just thrust her hand into Dreamfinder’s pocket and grab the necklace back. Asking him for it again would only be proven fruitless to attempt. Did did remember taking it off of her neck when she was taking that shower and watched it glow with a close-up presence. Perhaps, if Rachel should stand closer to Dreamfinder, the necklace would activate itself and make another imagination dream wish come true. She inches herself towards Dreamfinder’s back. Without him noticing, Rachel makes her next wish.

As she does this, the Abiteth roars again only louder than ever. Its legs and tentacles can be seen from outside. Dreamfinder sees this and starts to panic. He starts yanking and clicking the controlling to start the Dream Machine, but all he is getting is a puff of wheezing sand flying behind the airship and making a loud sigh. Figment and Alex are still trying to cool the engine. They have already poured in five buckets of water. The engine has been cooled enough for it to run smoothly, but it is still not working. Why? Now Dreamfinder has become even more worried. He continues to yank on the controls and pressing buttons. He mind is filled with happy things to help make it float, which are now being tainted by the fear of getting mauled by the monster. 

“Come on now. Why aren’t you working?” Dreamfinder mutters to his dismay.

That was when Rachel realizes the problem. To Dreamfinder’s left side, his foot is sitting on the gas pedal, or dream pedal in this case. Next to it is another pedal completely pressed downward. For anyone who drives a car, the rest should be obvious.

“Dreamfinder?” Rachel asked with no expression.

“Not now, Rachel!” Dreamfinder quivers. “I’m trying to get this to work.”

“Dreamfinder?”

“Wait a minute, Rachel. This is very important!”

“Dreamfinder!”

“What?! What is it?!”

“That wouldn’t happen to be an emergency brake next to your foot on the left, would it?” Rachel asks calmly, yet sarcastically.

“Yes. What about it?” Then Rachel puts her hands on her hips and stares at him coldly. Confused, Dreamfinder says, “What? I just said that these are the emergency…parking…” Then it clicked to him. He finally realizes the problem and concludes with a guilty chuckle, “Heh he…I forgot to release the emergency brake.”

“I know.” Rachel says with a smirk and now crossing her arms. “Would you mind doing that now so we can escape with our lives and live?” 

“Sure…no problem.” Dreamfinder then pulls a lever and releases the emergency brake. The Dream Machine finally starts to float, raising the guilt that had built inside of Dreamfinder for that somewhat awkward moment. “Idiot!” he shouted to himself in his mind.

With the Dream Machine inches and feet off the ground, it avoids the rumbling that had started below them. The water in the oasis is rippling, the trees are shaking vigorously, and the rocks in the cave are falling and cracking down into a pile of debris. But where is the Abiteth? Fifty feet above the surface, the four friends watch the pile of rock rolling away from each other and reveal the Abiteth monster rising out of it. Seeing the mass amount of weight that creature has, there is no way it can catch up to them now. That is where they are mistaken.

The Abiteth lifts itself out of the rock pile, but it’s not alone. With it, a spiral appears out of the sand from behind. On the sides of the spirals, there are even more spider-like legs popping and crawling out, all of which are even larger than the monster’s alone. With them, the monster lifts the spiral appearing as a shell to hide the creature from the intense heat.

With widened eyes, the fours friends watch in amazement of the creature’s increasingly massive size. What has scared them even more is seeing the Abiteth pouncing straight up to the Dream Machine to attack. Everybody screams.


	25. Chapter 25

The Abiteth barely misses its catch as it reaches for the Dream Machine. One large swipe from its spider legs would be enough to slice the Dream Machine in half from the balloon to its wheels and suction pipe. The one leg swishes past it the Dream Machine, blowing the afterburning of its wind against it and tumbling it sideways. The wind tumbling it into losing its balance to stay afloat affects the passengers onboard. The reaction has made Dreamfinder fall off of his chair and onto Rachel. His eyes widen at the sight of Rachel’s granted wish she secretly wished for from her necklace. 

Above him, at Rachel’s feet, he sees a metal weapon in her hands with a handle, six barrels and a trigger: a mini gun. Cold and black was its image. It has a built-in rocket launcher at the center and is carried like an assault rifle. Where the heck did that thing come from, Dreamfinder thought to himself. Seeing it in Rachel’s hands it must be hers. The shine of the sun reflects onto the gun and brightens onto Rachel’s angered face. Her eyes are squinting from the sunlight, her brows are crunched down and wrinkled, her hands are tightly gripped onto the gun, and her teeth are clenched with great irritation.

“Get behind me, Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouts. She stomps to the side of the Dream Machine. Loaded and ready to shoot she lifts her left leg to the railing and shouts, “Eat led, Crab-Gut!”

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder also shouts.

But Rachel ignores him and pulls the trigger. She aims the gun in a circle as the R.I.P. bullets shoot out rapidly from the gun and they fly straight toward the mouth of the beast. Each area of the Abiteth the bullets hit immediately blasts into a crater of organic gush and mush. The monster shrieks in agony falling back from the bullets. Rachel’s screams are also muted from the Abiteth’s. A few of the bullets have already hit four of the Abiteth’s eyes and chip off most of the decayed teeth from the mouth.

Meanwhile, Alex and Figment are trying to keep the pipes and steam engines cooled off. It had become difficult, however, since the Abiteth’s attempts to thwart the Dream Machine has put them in a more wobbly position. Back and forth to two friends are being tossed around like a salad. Some of the pipes are beginning to break off and spew out some dream steam followed by a whistling sound. Alex takes out a wrench he had brought from home and tries to screw the pipes back into place. Poor Figment is hanging onto the rail for dear life as he is being swayed in all directions of the air screaming.

As Rachel continues shooting at the beast, Dreamfinder struggles to get back to his seat and the controls to the air ship. He rolls away from her and crawls back to the side of the seat. His arms grab the farther side of the chair and he quickly pulls himself up. Planted back where he is needed to be, the Dreamfinder pushes and pulls the left lever forward and the right one backwards. The balloon of the Dream Machine grew bigger with more air lifting everyone higher and higher away from the Abiteth monster. Doing this has stabilized the aircraft despite the winds of the Abiteth’s legs swooshing them away from it. Rachel withdraws her firearm as the Dream Machine pulls her away from her reach. Just as she does, Alex and Figment return to her and Dreamfinder to see what is happening.

“Yeah! How do you like that?” Rachel shouted.

“Uh, Rachel…” Dreamfinder spoke in a nervous tone, “I know that we’re in a serious situation here but was the gun really, well…necessary?”

“You want a giant spider-squid monster to jump up and kill us?” Rachel asked.

“Yikes!” Figment exclaims. “It’s even scarier like this than before.”

“That’s because it’s bigger!” Alex confirms. “That size is big enough to destroy all of Iyra City lickety-split!”

“Or any sort of city for that matter.” Dreamfinder added.

“Maybe an entire state if it gets angry or hungry enough.” said Rachel. “But at least we’re high enough now.”

“Don’t jinx it!” Figment shouts.

“How? We’re going high enough for it not to reach us, aren’t we?”

“We ought to.” said Dreamfinder. “A high temperature like this should make us ascend higher. If this were colder temperature, we’d be going up much slower.”

“Then why are we going slower than faster?” Figment asked.

“Perhaps there is something colder around here that’s causing it.” Alex guesses.

“That may be relevant.” Dreamfinder agrees. “But what could be holding us down?”

“Uh…guys?” Rachel interrupts. 

“What?”

“Trouble at four o’clock!”

Below them, the Abiteth opens its mouth wide revealing the blood-rot teeth and long whipping tongue. Its fore legs spring the creature upward to the back of its shell. Out of its mouth the monster begins to gargle a gruesome purplish-green pool of goop. The monster then starts shooting the goop into big blobs at an incredible force like a cannon. Some of them have hit the Dream Machine and its balloon and have once again started tossing the four friends out of balance. One of those blobs have hit up to the bottom side of the balloon right above them. Falling onto their skin it drips down onto them in very sticky drooping drops twice the size of a man’s fist. The very touch of it is enough to chill a bear into hibernation during the summer. Surprising screams are shot out from the Dreamfinder and his friends.

“Agh! It’s cold!” Figment shouts.

“But how? It’s over a hundred sidkas out here!” Alex points out.

“Sidkas?”

“To the humans, a hundred sidkas are referred to as a hundred degrees.”

“Very neat! I’ll be sure to put that in my vocabulary.”

“Focus. Please!” Dreamfinder shouts.

“Wait a minute! I think I might know the answer to this!” Rachel shouts.

“The sidkas?” Figment guesses.

“No, the goop itself! This is the same goop we were covered with back in the cave…or shell or whatever it is and—”

“Aw gross!” Alex exclaims with disgust.

“Moving along, when that happened did anyone notice how cold it was getting in there?”

“I did feel a sudden chill go up my spine when I breathed that gas and while I was sleeping.” Figment admits.

“I…That-that’s right! Me too.” Dreamfinder also said. “But what’s that got to do with right now?”

“Hear me out…” Rachel began, “you know how a bear hibernates through the winter because it’s so cold to live through, or how some reptiles become sleepy in the cold, or perhaps how we’re not as motivated to do anything without sunlight? Cold temperatures can most of the time lead us to be a lot more dormant to do anything at all. So when the creature infected us with the gas and this goop—”

“Its fashioned itself into a kind of tranquilizing drug to weaken our senses,” Dreamfinder realizes, “therefore gradually sending us into what it seemed like a lackadaisically, yet strangely heavy suspended animation into our demise as a dietary organic fodder for its appetition!”

“What?” everyone exclaims in confusion.

“Drug us to sleep so it could eat us.” Dreamfinder clarifies.

“Yes! Ten points for Gryffindor!” Rachel shouts.

“Thanks…I think. But I still don’t understand where you’re getting at.”

“Think of it this way: you just said that colder temperatures would make the balloon not rise as high or fast enough. We were just flying higher from the monster up until it started shooting that goop at us.”

“And if that’s the case, then maybe…” Dreamfinder gets up and looks to the side of the balloon frantically. His eyes widen as he sees the goop from the Abiteth sizzling onto the fabric. He then confirms, “By George, Rachel, I think you’ve got it! It’s the temperature of the goop that is making up rise slower, or worse yet, shrinking. So long as the creature keeps shooting it at us, we’ll all be sitting ducks!”

“Well now that we’ve solved the goop mystery, how are we supposed to defeat this thing?” Alex points out.

“Hmm…hot deserts…” Dreamfinder then starts to brainstorm an idea thinking “cold cave…freezing goop…I can only assume that this creature is very much warm-blooded. It hates the hot desert sun out here and its cave-like shell is the only source of cold temperature out here.”

“What are you thinking, Dreamfinder?” asked Figment.

“If there is a way to get that thing out of the shell and into the sunlight, its chances of surviving it are between very slim to none.”

“And just how are we going to get it out?” Rachel asked.

“Easy!” Figment exclaims. He suddenly imagines himself wearing a puffy vest and a bucket hat decorated with fishhooks. At his side appears a small bucket of worms squirming all over each other like tiny snakes. And in his hands, a fishing rod comes out with a rubber grip on the handle and vast length of a fishing line. As his transformation materializes, Figment immediately reacts to his plan saying, “We fish it out!”

“Hmm…that sounds a bit barmy on the crumpet,” said Dreamfinder as he brushes his beard with a finger and thumb, “but that might just work.”

“Uh…that sounds like a great idea in all, Figment,” said Alex, “but don’t you think we’re going to need a much bigger and much sturdier rod to catch that thing?”

“Hmm…you’re right, Alex. Hey! Maybe we can use the Dream Machine as a fishing rod!”

“You mean put a trawling net on the bottom of the airship to catch it and pull it into the desert?” Rachel suggested.

“I don’t know what trawling means, but I understood the rest of what you’ve said. So yes!”

“This could work!” Dreamfinder agrees. “Imagining one to become real should be easy enough. The only problem is how we can get a trawling mechanism under it without getting hit by that beast.”

“I can keep shooting at it.” Rachel offered.

“Personally, Rachel I’d hate for you to do that some more, but I guess that’s the only line of defense we’ve got.”

“So it’s settled then. I shoot at the beast, while you two lower Dreamfinder down and under the Dream Machine so he can install it.”

“Not to complain, but I don’t know if Figment and Alex can carry me so far down.”

“It’s true.” said Figment. “The first two times I tried to carry Dreamfinder he’s much too heavy for me to carry both alone and with help.”

“Which isn’t to say I’m overweight or anything like that.”

“I’ll go.” Alex volunteers. “Dreamfinder may be heavy, the trawler might be too heavy for Figment to carry, and next to Dreamfinder I’m the only other person who knows who to use a wrench and a hammer.”

“I’m heavy?” Dreamfinder barks, realizing Alex’s use of words at him.

“Alright, you guys get on it.” Rachel orders. “I’ll go deal with this creep.”

“Right!” Figment and Alex say together.

“Hey Alex!”

“Yeah?” Alex replies.

“Be careful.” said Rachel with her eyes slightly loosened from the determined scrunch on her forehead.

Giving a nod back Alex joins with Dreamfinder and Figment to prepare the trawling net, while Rachel prepares for her second round with the desert monster. Both Figment and Dreamfinder tie some ropes around Alex extra tight so he would not fall off the ship. The last thing anyone wants is to become the creature’s lunch. 

But as Figment puts in the finishing touches on the young Katkin, Dreamfinder runs inside the cabin and to his room. On each side of the door are shelves full of a variety of books, most of them about scientific theories and mechanisms over the ages. He drags his finger across the lines of books until he quickly pulls out a book he found most suitable for this event. The title cover read “Gone Fishin’: The History, the Methods and the Mechanics of Fishing” with a picture of small picture of hundreds of small fishing boats on a lake. Each of the fishermen sat in their boats with their lines dangling in the water with only one fish swimming around by itself. Seeing how the cover is printed looks a little misleading since they added a history section, the artist technically should have put in pictures of old boats from different time periods. 

Dreamfinder could think critically about this, but this is not the time. He flips the pages abruptly, nearly ripping a couple of them in the process. Finally, he finds a picture of a machine that pulls and lets go of a giant net. On the top of the first page it reads “Trawling Nets.” This is just what he needs! Dreamfinder takes the book and runs back to his friends where he finds Figment already lowering Alex to the underside of the Dream Machine. Upon arrival, his brain whirls with the image of the trawling net from the book to appear in his hands. Being a Dreamfinder, whatever thought runs in his mind so long as it is pure and well focused, that thought turns into reality. Dreamfinder thinks hard and pictures the trawling net in his mind. In an immediate response, the net appears in front of him along with the winding mechanism to pull and let go and fell to the floor with a loud thud. Taking what is left of the rope, the Dreamfinder straps up the mechanism with it facing upside down and the net wound up. He then ties the ropes into loops on the railing at the side of the ship, puts the end of the rope under his foot, lifts the mechanism and then starts lowering it to Alex, who is already underneath the Dream Machine.

The young Katkin sees the net with the winding mechanism lowering to him. He swings a little to grab it. A smile lights up on his furry face when he does. Alex pulls it back to his position where an unused spot of the underside is left bare. Out of his pocket Alex pulls out a weird fob that is as big is his hand. The fob opens up into a compatible battery powered hand drill. And with any luck, the screws would fit perfectly into the little holes that will keep the mechanism intact without falling. He puts the upside down winding mechanism against the underside and starts drilling the screws in the holes.

The gun has been reloaded in time before the Abiteth jumps into the air again and take another swipe at the Dream Machine. The only advantage to that, as Rachel could see, is that the weight of the giant shell the creature is living in adds a lot of weight for it to fall down much faster. It would be a much greater advantage for the shell to actually break and reveal the creature’s much smaller size if the surface ground were made of concrete instead of just sand. As the Abiteth reaches up to the airship with its eyes darting at the girl with the weapon, Rachel loads the gun and starts shooting again. She manages to blast off a couple more eyeballs into gush and mush making the Abiteth cry out a terrible shriek. Its tentacles barely miss grasping onto the balloon that keeps the Dream Machine afloat. The shell it houses in begins to fall first pulling the creature down with it. From what looks like a very long way down from the Dream Machine, it may be just a short fall for the creature to hit. When it hit the ground, the sand dunes puff up into very large dust clouds. All seems quiet at the moment. Not another cry or any sign of movement. The Abiteth has got to be dead now. Perhaps that was all there was to it.

“Is it dead?” Rachel murmurs. “Did I kill it?”

Yuna, who has been hiding in the sapphire necklace Rachel wished for the gun from, flies out of the necklace swiftly without giving the Dreamfinder any notice of her presence to join Rachel. She sits on the farther side of Rachel’s shoulder where none of her friends would see.

“Yuna?” said Rachel. “Is it dead and gone yet?”

Without thinking, Yuna replies “No. You’ve only just made it angrier.” 

But then Rachel watches the dust clouds move slightly in a quickening pace. It’s not over yet. The creature is still alive within the sand. Rachel pulls the trigger from the mini gun, but no bullets come out.

“Damn it, I’m out!” Rachel growls.

Suddenly, without warning, the Abiteth shoots out more of its freezing goop. Only this time, they are coming out in much larger sizes than the last batch. The purple-green colors of the goop are reflecting from the sunlight as they zip straight towards Rachel and her friends. One of them makes a hard splatter onto the side of the balloon, sending the Dream Machine flying backwards. Alex was halfway through with attaching the mechanism to the bottom of the airship when it happened. The forceful wind has the Katkin waving and dangling away from it like a flag. He grabs onto one of the steam pipes while trying to keep the mechanism up from falling by the tips of his fingers. Figment and Dreamfinder fall back also where Dreamfinder loses his hat off the side of the airship like back in Iyrilia. Their hands are still tightly holding onto the ropes that are supporting Alex and the trawling net.

Seeing the Dream Machine taking a large blow from its goop attack, the Abiteth takes another jump out of the giant dust cloud. Its mouth opens wide enough to gobble the entire Dream Machine whole. With the creature soaring fast up in the air the fears of the four friends begin to rise up even fiercer than before. The goop in the Abiteth’s open mouth gargles wildly. Rachel’s eyes widen at the sight. She throws her empty gun at the monster, hitting it on one of its working eyes. As it starts to fall down again blinded, the Abiteth makes an accidental shot out of a goopy ball straight at Rachel, but Rachel doesn’t move. She is frozen with fear. Dreamfinder, who had recovered from the blow, watches the creature make its maneuver happen. Figment loudly calls out to his creator, but Dreamfinder ignores it. He quickly jumps to his feet and runs straight to Rachel. Just as the goop is about to touch Rachel, Dreamfinder makes like a human shield, pushes Rachel out of the way and gets blasted off and covered in Abiteth’s gruesome goop. A small chunk of it, as big as a man’s fist, gets into Dreamfinder’s mouth and he swallows it. 

The taste and after of the goop is so disgusting it has left the poor man hacking and choking until tears flooded his eyes. It tasted like vomit mixed with the smell of lamp oil, gas and sewage. And the worst part is that it tastes even more terrible when it’s cold. Dreamfinder tries to throw it all back out over the side of the Dream Machine, but it wouldn’t. The goop had solidified into a tacky blob in his throat. The more attempts he has tried, the worse the taste gets onto his taste buds.

“Agh! Blegh! Gross!” Dreamfinder cries.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel yells. “Dreamfinder, are you alright?”

“Ack! Yeah. Yes dear, I’m alright.”

“What? What’d you call me?” she asks.

“Uh…I called you ‘Rachel,’ Rachel.” said Dreamfinder awkwardly. Underneath the goop, his cheeks begin to blush again.

“Okay…gross! You’ve swallowed a bit of that stuff.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Will you be alright?”

“I do hope so. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I am. Thanks.” Rachel smiles.

“Good.” said Dreamfinder.

“Dreamfinder! Rachel!” Figment calls out from the other side of the Dream Machine.

“Are you guys okay?” Alex shouts.

“We’re fine!” said Rachel. “At least, I hope Dreamfinder is.”

“I’m good!” Dreamfinder confirms. “Are you almost done, Alex?”

“I’ve got about a screw or two to go.” said Alex as he wipes the sweat off his forehead with his arm. “I need a little more time.”

“Okay! I’ll keep the Dream Machine moving for a while until you finish. We can’t have another blow get us.”

“Are you sure, Dreamfinder?” Rachel asked in a worrisome tone. “You look like you’re turning a little pale.”

“I promise you I’ll be fine, Rachel.” Dreamfinder says as he attempts to climb onto his pilot’s seat.

The Dreamfinder’s jacket and dress coat is completely drenched as it squishes at the sound of his arms moving. His hands and shoes give out a splattering noise as he tightens his fists and takes one step after another. The goop slowly drapes down from head to toe forming a trail behind Dreamfinder up to his seat. Much of the goop is covering his face it’s tangling the hairs on his head, his mustache and his beard. Dreamfinder has made sure his mouth stays completely closed until he needs to breath again, though he fears that his breaths would catch a taste of the goopy smell both through the mouth and the nose. It was best for him to hold his breath for a while.

Clickety-click did the levers sound when Dreamfinder push and pulled them for the Dream Machine to moved. A much riskier move for him to do is decrease the air inside the balloon for it to go lower. Not only will it get it closer to the Abiteth’s reach, but also increase the chances of running out of air from the freezing goop. Up and down, left and right the Dreamfinder had made it go tossing everyone else on board like a salad. But it only made the goop he swallowed into his body much sicker.

All of the Abiteth’s shots have done it no good to hit its target. The Dream Machine keeps dodging them without fail since it hit the Dreamfinder. This has only made the creature a lot more agitated than before, a lot more than Rachel shooting at it.

Finally getting the trawling net attached to the Dream Machine, Alex tugs onto his rope. The little dragon Figment received his signal and immediately pulls the Katkin boy up. As Alex pops his head over the flooring on the side of the ship, he sees Dreamfinder completely covered in the Abiteth’s broth. He vomits over the railing and watches it fail fast down to the sandy surface below. Figment pats Alex on his back for his comfort.

“Well,” Alex begins as he finishes his little sickening scene, “I got the net attached, what now?”

“Dreamfinder?” Figment calls out.

“Here’s the plan…I’ve already imagined hooks to be connected to the netting.” said Dreamfinder with a gargling tone in his voice from the goop. “We have to get close enough to that thing, drop the net, and once it gets tangled in it we pull it out of it shell and destroy it!”

“Sounds like a plan to me!”

“How are we going to get closer to it?” Rachel asks. “It looks even more annoyed at us than before, let alone we’ve escaped from becoming his snack.”

“We’re just going to have to force our way down there.” Dreamfinder suggests.

“At the jaws of the beast?!”

“You’ve got any better ideas?”

Rachel didn’t say a word. The expression on her face looks a lot more guilty and shameful than anything else. Of all people, only Dreamfinder could really tell. A short moment of silence came about for Rachel to think it over, but not a single idea has come into mind. There is no other way to defeat it.

“No, I don’t.” said Rachel. “Let’s do it.”

“Alex!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “I need you and Figment by the net. When I give the signal, you let the mechanism unwind and drop the net. Got it?”

“Got it!” Alex replied.

“Rachel, you stay next to me and hang on!”

Again, not a word comes out of Rachel’s mouth. It has become obvious how worried Rachel has become over Dreamfinder’s well being since the Abiteth shot at him. Hearing her host say how he will “be fine” apparently isn’t convincing enough for Rachel to take in. For once, she decides not to object. Instead she holds onto Dreamfinder’s arm, despite the sickening touch of the Abiteth’s mush. At first, she flinches due to how cold the goop is. It squishes through her fingers and soaks through her gloves. Her eyes cringe at its consistency, but she restrains herself and keeps holding onto Dreamfinder.

The Dreamfinder quickly thrusts both of the levers forward. The Dream Machine rapidly goes faster diving straight down toward the creature’s beak. Closer and closer it gets. The tension builds up faster than all of Dreamfinder’s, Rachel, Figment’s and Alex’s rising heartbeats combined. The little dragon and the Katkin grabbed each other’s arms, bracing themselves for this intense moment. Rachel grasps tighter onto Dreamfinder arm up to his shoulder. Surprising enough for Dreamfinder, Rachel’s touch is beginning to warm up his arm through the cold extract. At the same time, however, it is not become as surprising to him since she has already warmed his heart from the beginning. Feeling her hold on to his arm in that manner has brought him to the point of smiling. His courage has risen to great lengths, allowing himself to believe that this maneuver he intends to get done will all be worth it.

Finally, as the Abiteth shrieks ever so loudly, the Dream Machine has reached a very close distance to it. Dreamfinder and Rachel put on their goggles; the wind blowing at their faces are becoming too much for them to see straight. Watching the creature coming much closer to them has gotten Rachel ready to starting screaming in fear. Who could blame her really? Dreamfinder holds up his free arm for Alex and Figment to see, signaling for them to get ready to let the net go.

“Ready…a-n-n-n-n-n-n-d…NOW!” Dreamfinder shouts abruptly.

As they hear Dreamfinder’s signal go off, Figment and Alex let go of the ropes. Then Dreamfinder pulls the levers back towards where the Dream Machine rises directly up and over the beak and through two of the pillaring tentacles that could easily slap the whole thing down and bring everyone to their demise. But just as the Abiteth snaps its beak and misses, the hooks catch onto the beast’s eye sockets and the net entangles the tentacles with it. As the monster shrieks in pain from the hooks, Dreamfinder turns the Dream Machine into a circle to keep it entrapped and retreats it back towards the direction they came from. Trapped in the net, the Abiteth is being pulled away from its shell. The boiling sun begins to burn its flesh into a leathered jerky, or worse yet: a steamed crab, making the pain more agonic. But the creature tries to fight back by reaching its legs through the net and crawling away. The Dream Machine is abruptly being pulled back. The winding mechanism is about ready to start breaking off. The Abiteth is just too strong to beat. Suddenly, Dreamfinder thrusts both of the levers towards him. In an immediate response, the Dream Machine begins to rise to the sky like yeast. The plan works out with a great success; the Abiteth is pulled all the way out of its giant shell. The creature cannot escape now that it is completely exposed to the sunlight and trapped in the net with no opening it could squeeze out of. 

Shortly thereafter, the Abiteth has been proven far too heavy for the Dream Machine to carry up any higher. The mechanism breaks off of the underside dropping the monster down to the desert sand and causing the Dream Machine to jump higher with a rocketing launch. The monster lands onto the sand with a loud thud forming another giant dust cloud. Then with sun shining brightly onto it, the monster rushes out of the cloud screeching its painful cries throughout the desert air, but there is nothing that can help it now. The entrance into the shell is broken into thousands of pieces blocking any access to get inside. Steam has begun to sizzle out of the creature’s flesh as it is being burnt to a crisp. There is no escape or refuge for the Abiteth to run to. Even jumping into the cool oasis was not going to do it any good. Finally, the sun has gotten into its inner organ and completely fries it to its death. The other parts left of the creature is its ashes flying across the desert winds and its legs becoming as dry as wooden logs. The Abiteth is no more.

Landing the Dream Machine safely back down to the ground, the four friends jump off and investigate the monster’s carcass. It is fruitless for any of them to say that the creature is definitely gone for good. 

“Alright!” Alex shouts with glee.

“We did it!” Figment cheers. “We defeated the creature!”

“Yes, and such a tough one.” said Dreamfinder as he wipes off more of the remains of the Abiteth’s goop from his head.

Suddenly, Dreamfinder notices his top hat tumbling back towards him. Bumping into his legs, Dreamfinder crouches down and retrieves it back.

“Seriously, dude, how does your hat keep coming back to you after every intense battle we win?” Rachel asked.

“It…it just does, Rachel.” Dreamfinder replies. “It seems it has become a lot more attached to me than I am to it.”

“It’s like Indiana Jones! Whenever he survives a battle or a great escape while losing his hat in the process, it just…keeps…coming…back! Ha! It’s hilarious! Really!”

“Is everyone okay? No one’s hurt or anything?” Figment asks.

“I think we’re okay.” Alex confirms.

But as Dreamfinder attempts to put his hat back on his head, he unexpectedly screams and cringes down to his knees and wraps his arms across his stomach. Sweat begins to form on his forehead. He cannot tell what is happening to him.

“Dreamfinder!” Rachel shouts. She rushes to his side clasping her hands onto both of his shoulders. “Dreamfinder! What’s wrong?”

“Oh no!” Alex exclaims.

“I-I-I-I don’t know…I just…felt a sharp pain rushing inside me…I’m…I’m so cold…”

“Dreamfinder, look!” Figment cries as he points toward his creator’s face.

Some of the goop on Dreamfinder’s face isn’t coming off. In fact, it’s growing! The pieces of the Abiteth’s residue are growing into patches of blob and infecting the Dreamfinder’s skin. He then rips off the buttons off his dress coat and white revealing to him and his friends more of the spots growing larger and larger.

“Ah!” Rachel screams in terror.

“What’s happening to you, buddy?” Figment asks with great worry.

“It has to be the goop from the creature.” Alex suspects. “There must be a high level of toxic acid that could either be burning or freezing his insides.”

“Guys…I don’t…feel…so g-o-o-o-o-d…” Dreamfinder says slowly.

“No Dreamfinder, no!” Rachel shouts. “Stay with us! Guys, help me pick him up!” 

As Alex and Figment rush to grab Dreamfinder’s legs, Rachel wraps her arms under Dreamfinder’s. The Dreamfinder’s blue eyes are blurring very fast. He could not even tell that Rachel is shedding tears. Nevertheless, he looks straight them enjoying the tenderly light brown color of her pupils.

“You’re gonna be okay, pal!” Figment assures. “You’re gonna be fine.”

“Ra…chel…” Dreamfinder weakly speaks as he weakly tries to lift one of his arms to touch her cheek, but fails. His eyes fall and blink heavily to get if he could get one last look of his friends and Rachel’s face, but his vision gets worse and worse from the blurriness. All he can do is hear Rachel speak to him.

“Hang on, Dreamfinder.” Rachel speaks softly. “Hang on…”

Dreamfinder blacks out.


	26. Chapter 26

“…Dreamfinder…Dreamfinder…Dreamer?”

The infection of the Abiteth’s residue has left Dreamfinder in a state of a coma for who knows how long. As it had spread, his senses had grown weaker and weaker. Thus, he fainted, for Dreamfinder is done for. If that is the case, then how come he can still hear Rachel’s voice? Her sounds are murmuring and echoing towards the sick man’s ears. His eyes tighten as he manages to wake up. Then Dreamfinder’s eyes lids open heavily and are filled with a fuzzy blur followed by a grassy texture of his feint eyelashes. 

Through that grassy blur he finds a peachy-tan and reddish blob sitting beside him. As the blob continues to move, the Dreamfinder’s vision becomes clearer. Soon the blob’s figure begins to take the form of a familiar person. When the blur becomes more vivid, he soon realizes Rachel is sitting beside him. The Dreamfinder’s eyes meets up with Rachel’s joyous, yet calming smile, tempting him to do the same. 

His coughing, however, has gotten in the way of showing that one smile due to the pain of the freezing residue from the creature. The coldness in Dreamfinder’s chest comes out in a sharp pain every time he coughs. And coughing those coughs have made his throat sore, making it hard for him to speak clearly, hack out any of the goop caught in, or even breathe. The Dreamfinder is in terrible shape at the moment.

The last thing that happened before he fainted was that he, Rachel, Figment and Alex Wavers destroyed the Abiteth in the high noon at the desert. This place is not that place. Searching, the Dreamfinder’s eyes wander about this new area. A red fabricated tarp is wrapped above him and Rachel like a tent, lit only by a single candlelight. Alex is sleeping at Dreamfinder’s left side with his back against him, though he could not tell where his little purple friend is. Below him, he lays on a green satin sheet with his head on top of a round cylinder pillow with golden tassels and dark red silk filled with an aroma of sweet-smelling herbs. 

“Rach… Rachel?” Dreamfinder finally speaks in his wispy voice.

But as he looks down to see the sheet, he finds the remains of Abiteth’s goop sitting on top of his torso infecting his body still. Dreamfinder’s tired eyelids grow wider than before. The fearful shock of remembering what was happening to him before he fainted had revived in him. He quickly lifts his arms up in attempts to back away from the infection, but it has only been proven useless. Rachel lets go of the wash towel she has been cooling Dreamfinder’s head with and grabs one of his arms to stop him. Dreamfinder turns his head quickly to Rachel’s direction with a gasp in his breath.

“Calm down, Dreamer.” said Rachel. “You’re alright now.”

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder exclaims, wheezing through his goop-infested throat. “Where are we? How long have I been out? And what is this?”

Rachel then hushes Dreamfinder saying, “Shush! Keep it down or you’ll wake Figment and Alex up.”

“Hmm? I see Alex, but where’s Figment?”

“He’s sleeping right behind you. It’s been pretty busy trying to get you better the whole time.”

“Figment…”

Dreamfinder lift his arm closest to Figment to try to pet his old friend, but his hand gets swiped away by Rachel saying, “No Dreamer, don’t touch him! You’re still infected. Touch anyone with any part of your body smothered with that goop and you’ll spread the disease.”

“What’s happened here?” Dreamfinder asks. “How did we get to this place?”

“Well…”

********************************************************************************************************

 

Three days ago…

 

After Dreamfinder and his friends defeated the Abiteth, Dreamfinder chokes on the piece of its gargled goop that shot into his mouth while saving Rachel from being splashed with it. This had resulted to the point of getting extremely sick and fainting. The last thing Dreamfinder had seen was Figment and Alex grabbing onto his legs to carry him and the movement of Rachel’s lips telling him to stay strong, but even that was not enough for him to fight against the infection.

With their host completely blacked out, the rest of the group is left in a state of severe panic. For one thing, no one knows how to fly the Dream Machine but Dreamfinder. And second, with the oasis gone and destroyed during Abiteth’s attack there is no longer any source of life in the desert. They figured it would be pointless to leave the desert world believing that there would be someone other doctor in some other realm or even Earth that would know how to cure him and without infecting anyone else. This is one situation that has left everyone stuck.

“No! Dreamfinder, wake up! Stay with us!” Rachel shouted.

“Wake up, buddy!” Figment shouted as well, as he flew on top of Dreamfinder’s body. He simultaneously slapped his hands onto Dreamfinder’s cheeks side-to-side and says, “You can’t give up on us now.”

But as Figment slapped his hands, they suddenly ran right through Dreamfinder’s cheeks. His once solid hands have become very thin and translucent. The colors are fading, he can’t touch anything anymore and he’s beginning to feel sicker as well. Surprised, the little dragon looked at his hands noticing what is causing this to happen.

“What?” Alex gasped in shock.

“Figment!” Rachel screams. “What’s happening to you?”

“Oh no…I’m disappearing!” Figment exclaims in a frightened tone.

“What? Why?” Alex worries in his quiver.

“It’s Dreamfinder. He’s beginning to fade away inside, too.”

“What’s that got to do with you?” Rachel shouts. “You’re real, aren’t you?”

“I am,” said Figment, “but I’m also imaginary. And being Dreamfinder’s imaginary friend, I would have to face the same fate as he does.”

“What does that even mean?” Alex asks.

“It means that whatever is going on inside of Dreamfinder is killing him.” Figment confirms solemnly. “So long as Dreamfinder is dying, I’m dying, too. With Dreamfinder’s imagination gone, all of his hopes and dreams are fading away…including me!

“Oh no…no…no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-NO! Dreamfinder, wake up!” Rachel shouts as she tries to shape the poor man awake, but no luck came. “You’ve got to fight it! Fight! Wake up!”

“It’s no use.” Alex said in remorse. “He’s far too out of his senses to sense anything.”

“No! We can’t give up yet!” said Figment with determination inside of…whatever there is left in him. “Without Dreamfinder or me, you two will be stuck here forever!” The dragon examines Dreamfinder carefully. A tiny curve in the man’s eyes twitches on each side as well as his arms. Then Figment concludes, “There’s still hope in rescuing him. Since I’m not fading as fast, Dreamfinder must be trying to fight the infection inside. I don’t know how long it’s going to last though.”

“We’ve got to find help and fast!” said Alex, as she holds Dreamfinder firmly by his shoulders.

“How?” Rachel asked so abruptly. “We’re in the middle of a forsaken desert, in a strange world with no source of life anywhere but right here, and that’s us! And we can forget about using the oasis again now that it’s been buried in the sand.”

“There has to be someone out here who can help us.” said Figment, trying to show a little encouragement. The heat, however, seems likely to destroy everyone’s ability to budge.

“It’s…it’s is all my fault.” Rachel whimpered with tears beginning to form in her eyes. “If I hadn’t been so rude to him, we wouldn’t have gone inside that thing in the first place. Not only are we going die of extreme heat and exhaustion, but I’ll also be dying in shame of all the times I so wrongfully treated you all. I…I killed Dreamfinder!” 

All of the tears in Rachel’s eyes are dropping down her cheeks at this moment. They each either dry up very quickly on her face or evaporate onto the sand at their first touch. Rachel then buries her head upon Dreamfinder’s neck ignoring the residue forming continuously at his chest. In the midst of this, Dreamfinder’s hand unexpectedly lifts and softly pets onto Rachel’s laps. A very weak smile from his lips forms under the Dreamfinder’s rugged mustache. His quickening cold blood is beginning to warm up out of Rachel’s compassion. All he was able to let out for her is small gasp and a series of long quiet breaths.

Figment sees all of this happen and then looks at Rachel, who is still crying. His two tiny wings, brightly orange as ever by the sunlight, flutters rapidly directing him towards Rachel. He hovers right over Dreamfinder with his crocodile nose standing out an inch away from Rachel’s tear-drenched face. Holding out his fading hand to Rachel’s chin, he somehow manages to turn her direction to Figment’s big yellow softened eyes. The little dragon smiles at Rachel. How can a dying dragon be filled with so much hope at a time like this? It is understandable that if both he and Dreamfinder die, at least they will be together. But that cannot possibly be the reason for that smile.

“There is still hope, Rachel.” said Figment calmly. “So long as Dreamfinder is still moving in the slightest, we can still save him. See?”

The dragon points out to Rachel the Dreamfinder’s hand placed above her laps, close to her knee. It slightly tickled her, but she didn’t care. The small smile on Dreamfinder’s face also brought encouragement into her heart again. It was enough for Rachel to smile for him inside, but the facts of being stranded in the desert and the slim chance of Dreamfinder surviving had overcome her physical expressions.

“But what can we do?” Rachel sobs, “There nothing out here that can help us.”

“We do what we always do: use out imagination. If imagination has helped him and me get out of trouble in the past, I guarantee it will help us find our way to help Dreamfinder and get out of the desert. But it’s not going to help us out if we just sit here and do nothing. Believe in me. Believe in Dreamfinder. But more importantly: believe in yourself.”

“But…but Dreamfinder has already confirmed that I have no-”

“Forget what Dreamfinder said!” Figment interrupts. “He didn’t mean it. He only said that because the heat and that icky fog were what’s been going on his brain. Only don’t tell him I said that.” He chuckles a bit. “He knows, and I know, and I’m pretty sure Alex here should know, too, that you have an incredible imagination inside that noggin’ of yours. You saved us a few times with that when we were being turned into Woosoes in Fillidore and Dreamfinder falling from the sky when we entered Iyrilia. With your imagination and ours together, we’re going to find a cure for Dreamfinder.”

Such wise words coming from a witty little dragon. Though, it did come from Dreamfinder’s brain in the first place. Still, Rachel sat there and listened to those words. The look on Figment’s face is sincere. His pupils quivered slightly as the purple reptile tried to contain himself from crying as well. Even in the state Figment is in, he’s trying to be strong for his friends. The bond between Dreamfinder and his dragon, Rachel realizes, is by far completely unbreakable. Their faith in each other has gotten them this far in their adventures. This one, therefore, is no exception. 

So there is simply no reason for Rachel to continue drenching herself in this matter. She looks down upon Dreamfinder’s defeated face in pity. Her hands pet Dreamfinder’s head and run through his brown-gingery, slightly curled hair. From this, she receives another weak smile from Dreamfinder and supposed-savior for her life. After all, he and Figment got her out of the realities of Earth where she could have done something worse for herself after getting fired. The poor brilliant man is suffering through this because he cared so much about her to save her from this fate. Rachel finally understands that now. Drying her tears, she builds up her courage at last and gives in to her friend’s encouragement. 

“…Okay.” Rachel whispers with a small smile and a nod. 

“Okay!” Figment smiles back. “Now first thing’s first: we’ve got to use our imagination to find help.”

“I get it that imagination is the key to solving our problems most of the- ALL the time, Figment,” Alex spoke out at last, “but what can we possibly do with it to find help?”

“Easy! Imagine some people to appear in our minds, and if we think and believe hard enough they’re sure to appear.”

“Does that work?” Rachel asked. “Like really work?”

“If it worked for our friend, Fye back at the Sound Acreage, it’s bound to work here, too.” Figment replies with a smile.

“But what kind of people do we come up?”

“Any kind! So long as we imagine them having the wisdom of curing people with whatever they’ve got. Imagery shouldn’t matter, just so long as it gets the job done.”

“Alright, let’s try it.” Alex said. “Everyone, think!”

Everyone sat where they were in deep thoughts. Rachel managed to hover Dreamfinder’s face so the sun doesn’t burn him into crispy bacon. Fortunately, it gave her an insight of Dreamfinder’s breathing pace, which was at this point incredibly low. Becoming sitting ducks with no sign of movement, however, has let the sun to allow itself to burn the others instead. The heat intensified greatly over them. It has made it become harder to think of ideal people to help cure their friend. So far, whenever their eyes looked up, all they have seen are giant pictures of ice cream, more palm trees, another oasis, and a glacier of ice: mirages. It wasn’t so surprising that any of them hadn’t thought of doing the thinking inside the cabin area of Dream Machine. Their brains were fried enough as it was.

Still, it didn’t stop any of them from imagining themselves some help. Rachel’s mind, of course, was aimed at finding help from humans doctors, actual human doctors. With any luck, they could at least be given a nurse. Alex also tries to think of doctors, but in the image of desert related creatures such as camels or snakes that have specialized in medicine. Even a witch doctor that deals with voodoo would be helpful enough. Figment, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less whom or what this person looked like. He put all of his ideas into practice so long as these kinds of people would come out wise enough to give Dreamfinder an antidote of some kind.

Finally, though, when everyone was about to feel their skins boiling and frying in the heat, a touch of a hand came upon Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel’s opens her eyes and gasps at the sight of their unexpected visitor, alarming both Figment and Alex as well.

The person who showed up along with its clan look an awful lot more peculiar then any of Rachel, Figment and Alex had imagined. A cloaked figure came to Rachel’s side with its face covered and shaded in a dark brown color by its hood. Its eyes were the only things the others could see in it as well as the other folks behind this stranger. What followed this stranger was a group of more cloaked figures like it accompanied by a herd of camels. Their cloaks are all colored in white, red or brown. It must depend on their status of authority or something.

None of Figment or his friends could make out what these people are physically supposed to be. The one that stood next to Rachel looked down to Dreamfinder, who had been out and laying upon the girl’s laps for some time now, in pity. It looked back to Rachel and then to her friends gazing at them strangely. As strange as these new people were to the three friends, they were just as strange to the cloaked desert folk, too. The stranger stared at them all observing the expressions on their faces. One carried shock, one carried fear, one carried curiosity, they all carried confusion in them. Still, the stranger knelt down beside Rachel to get a closer look at them. Of all the three persons in the group, Rachel happened to look the strangest looking to it and its group. It appears that they’ve never seen a human before, a female human at least. That didn’t bother the stranger too much, though, for it now had finally got up to courage to speak.

“hal 'ant aldhy astadeana?” said the stranger in its feminine voice.

For once, the newest person they meet had spoken a different language. No one could understand what this stranger was saying. That is, at least most of them couldn’t. Somehow, Rachel had understood that language. All she was able to understand was “Are you the one who has summoned us?” Not sure how she was able to interpret that, she still bothered to reply to this new stranger.

“Yes, I believe we are.” Rachel said.

The stranger looked back down at the dying Dreamfinder, whose face is almost entirely being covered up by the goop’s infection. It places the back of its hand, revealing it as a darkened claw of some sort, onto Dreamfinder’s forehead. It could feel the hot and cold flashes rushing back and forth through the man’s skin. Then Dreamfinder cringed at the sudden touch. His teeth clenched a bit as did his eyelids squeezed tightly shut. His arms shook and had immediately been covered with raging goosebumps popping up every second. His breaths gasped coldly and quickly from that touch. The only thing that kept him warm was Rachel’s lap against his back. That was the only redeeming feature of this sudden event.

Seeing that Dreamfinder was in an extreme state of this disease, the stranger snapped it fingers to its group saying in its own language, “hadha alrajul marid jadaa! 'iiedad alkhayam. waealayna 'an nuealijah.” In English it said, “This man is very sick! Set up the tents. We must cure him.” The stranger looked back at these new people with its eyes not blinking even once. It speaks once again.

“ma asmak?” the stranger asked.

“…I’m…I’m Rachel.” Rachel shyly replies. “This is Figment, Alex Wavers, and the one that’s sick right here is called Dreamfinder.”

“min ayi balad hadaratak?”

“We’re…from another dimension. The three of us are from a place called Earth, while Alex is from another place called Iyrilia.”

“hal ‘ant alalahat?”

“No. We’re not gods. We’re just…we’re just us. What are you going to do with us?”

“la tuqliq. Hadha hu eamal ‘abith alshariru, lakunina naerif alealaja. Wanahn sawf takhudh alrieayat minkum jamyeaan.”

“Rachel, you can understand all that?” Figment exclaims. “What’s she saying?”

“She…she says not to worry about Dreamfinder. They know the antidote to cure Dreamfinder from the creature’s, or Abiteth as they called it, disease. They’re going to help us.”

“Really? That’s great! Did you hear that Dreamfinder, ol’ buddy? You’ll be good as new again!”

“Can you really help him?” Rachel asks the stranger.

“kam min alwaqt kan mithl hdha?” the stranger replied back with a question of her own.

“About a half hour. He’s been sick like this for a half hour. Though by the looks of it now, I think he’s getting worse.”

“thuma kunaa 'afdal musaeidatah ealaa alfawr. hdha almarad sawf tazdad su'ana fi kli daqiqatin.”

“What did she say?” Alex asked.

“She says that the disease gets worse every minute that passes, so we’d better help cure Dreamfinder immediately.” Rachel replied in English.

“tati. yjb ‘an nasriea.” The stranger said. In English she would say it like “Come. We must hurry.”

The stranger stands back up and heads back to her group. Her distinctive voices commanding her people to hustle faster to put the tent up becomes more feint to hear the farther she walked away from Rachel, Alex and Figment. None of the three friends could make out what had just happened. Their only explanation was that the power of imagination had once again saved them from seclusion in the desert, but their thanks to the new strangers are on hold until Dreamfinder is cured. But what had bewildered them most was how Rachel was able to understand what the stranger’s foreign language. It all sounded like gibberish to Figment and Alex, but crystal clear to the girl.

“Wow, Rachel!” said Figment with excitement. “I didn’t know you could speak Arabic!”

“I…I don’t. I never did.” Rachel said in confusion.

“But you just spoke their language in their dialect so fluently!” Alex said.

“Their language? I was speaking English!”

“That’s not what we heard.” said Figment. “What we heard was…uh…asi-gabi-something-something-something-muka. Or something like that.”

“What? I said that?” Rachel realized.

“Yeah. As clear as this blue sky.” Alex confirms.

“Weird.” Rachel said to herself. “I don’t remember saying it all like that.”

“mahla! hal ‘ant qadm?” the stranger called out to them from the finished tent and waving her arms. 

“Oh! Coming!” Rachel shouted. “Guys, give me a hand with Dreamfinder.”

“Okay.” Both Figment and Alex exclaim in agreement.

They each took a leg while Rachel took Dreamfinder’s topside and carried him all the way into the tent with the Dream Machine parked outside. Dreamfinder had let out a couple short breaths due to his sickness that flew down to his torso.

“Don’t worry, Dreamfinder…” Rachel grunted at his weight. “You’ll be better soon.”

 

********************************************************************************************************

“So that’s basically what happened.” said Rachel. “These people have been treating to you with their medication for three days now. And it seems like it’s working wonders for you.”

“Wait. So…so these people speak a different language, but you alone can understand it?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Yeah.” Rachel said in a weird tone. “It’s so weird. I know for sure I was speaking English, but Figment and Alex believed I was speaking their language so fluently. I don’t understand how, though.”

“Are you sure you haven’t learned this language beforehand?”

“I’m more than sure. Besides, being new to this world means none of us could have possibly known what language these people would be speaking.”

“Perhaps you’ve been gifted.”

“You think?”

“If you hadn’t been, I wouldn’t be alive anymore.”

“That’s a nice thought. So how do you feel?” Rachel asks.

“Better than earlier.” Dreamfinder replies in his wispy voice with a smile. “Though I still feel kind of gross from this goopy stuff both inside and out.”

“I’m so sorry, Dreamfinder. If I hadn’t encouraged you, or any of us, to go spelunking in that cave-shell thing, we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess.”

“No Rachel, it’s alright now. At least we get to live to tell the story about it when we get home.”

“Yeah…home.”

Dreamfinder notices the gloomy expression on Rachel’s face. Realizing what she meant, he gently squeezes his hand gripping onto Rachel’s fingers. Because of Dreamfinder making the earlier threat to send Rachel back to her own home after they return to Earth, whatever hopes she must have had had begun to dwindle. The threat Dreamfinder had made was what gotten Rachel to act what he believes to have been “rash,” which were the moments when Rachel screamed at him and Figment about the gas masks and “lying” about Yuna’s existence and presence. None of this seemed to be entirely her fault, however.

“Rachel.” Dreamfinder spoke as he place his uninfected hand onto Rachel’s cheek. “I’ve…I’ve been acting like a real jerk lately and…it was very wrong. I’ve already made the excuse of the heat getting into my head and we both know how those fumes in the cave had both taken effect on you and me and Figment. But there is really no excuse for how rudely I’ve been behaving towards you, so…I’m sorry. Truly, I am.”

“Thanks, Dreamfinder.” Rachel says with her small lips smiling. “That means a lot coming from you. I’m sorry for causing a lot of the stress, too.”

“It’s alright, Rachel. Listen, for sure we’re going back home to Earth as soon as I’m completely cured, but if you still want to come with Figment and me across the realms of imagination we will be more than happy to have you.”

“As long as I behave, if that’s what you’re also asking of me.”

“I wasn’t meaning to say that. Not now, at least.”

“Well whether or not you did, I’ll still try to behave. I may have said this a lot, but much of what’s happened in my life hasn’t been kind to me. Therefore, a lot of the bad things I’ve learned to say or do have implanted themselves in me to be what I never wanted to be.”

“Your father?” Dreamfinder guessed.

“…Yes.” Rachel hesitantly said.

“Oh Rachel, I didn’t mean—”

“No, it’s okay really. I would’ve said that, too.”

“So…what was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“Your dream. The dream you must have had while we were all asleep from the creature’s gas. Do you remember what it was like?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Just answer the question.” said Dreamfinder remarking with a smirk on his lips.

“It was pretty hellish.” Rachel casually replies. “What about you?”

“Really? How come?”

“Let’s just say it’s personal. And for once, it doesn’t entirely have to do with my dad.”

“Deep emotions?”

“Sort of. What was your dream?” Rachel asks.

Blushing on his cheeks, Dreamfinder said, “Uhh…it’s kind of personal, too, but I’d say it was a bit more…nicer.”

Well, how nice for you.”

“Such sass.”

“I wonder what Figment must of dreamt of.”

“Probably more of those colorful foods we ate a while ago or him flying to the moon, however that’s possible.”

“Seriously, dude, how do you not know so many of these things? The copy machine? The hamburgers? The World Wars? The gas masks? And now you don't know that the world had sent astronauts to the moon already? I mean, what gives? Have you been living in the dark all your life?”

“Have you?” Dreamfinder remarked.

“I’m just saying.” Rachel said, keeping inside the reaction of this slight insult, if she could call it that.

“Well let me ask you: have you ever considered that maybe I don’t know so much of those things because I’m not from the world you know of?”

“If you’re an alien from outer space or some other dimension, that would make sense. I’d freak out a little, but at least I’d know it better by now. Earth, though, well…by the way you dress, I guess you look a little, pardon my expression, old-school. In fact, you look like someone who lived in the early twentieth century.”

“Home…” Dreamfinder muttered to himself. It has been a long time, by now, when he and Figment has started their journey into imagination and left London. Dreamfinder gazed his eyes toward the ceiling of the tent remembering what he had done in his lifetime. His boyhood, his family, London, the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, and finally creating Figment, all of which that have taken place so quickly in time. When was the last time he gave much thought about returning? Perhaps his head has taken up a vacancy in the clouds for a permanent time. He then spoke aloud to Rachel “If you could think of a certain time period I look like I’m from, when would it be and why?”

“Hmm…since you’ve asked, adding that you said you’re from London,” Rachel began, “I’d guess you probably would have lived around 1910 when horseless carriages came about or when George V ascended the British throne—”

“And me and Figment saving London from an inter-dimensional robot invasion and total chaos where I succeeded in becoming the Dreamfinder?” he smiled.

“Yeah, sure. Or when King Edward VII died, or the start of immigration to—WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! You were there?”

“Yes, indeed. I was born in 1882 and lived my life in London until 1910.”

“No, no, you couldn’t be. With that much time and adding the amount of time after that event, you’d be…you’d be over a hundred…ten…twenty…a hundred and thirty-three years old!”

“Yes.” Dreamfinder chuckles, taking delight in Rachel’s confusing, yet amusing excitement.

“Oh. Well, um….uh…looking good!” Rachel smirked in embarrassment with her fingers pointed at him and her thumbs straight, trying to sound cool at the same time. The thought of Dreamfinder being that much older, and yet still looking so much younger has become a mystery to her. She wondered how could a man like Dreamfinder be in a time not his own? “Is it…are you really that—”

“Well, I would be that old if you added the amount of years from birth to my recent time travel with Figment. But if you take the time traveling years out and just subtract 1910 to 1882, I’m actually twenty-eight years old.”

“So you’d be about seven years older than me.”

“That’s right.”

“Neat! Still, I don’t see how that…ooooooooooooooooooh…” Rachel’s right hand smacked onto her forehead. The look on Rachel’s face became both pale and dumbfounded, realizing what and where Dreamfinder had come from. “Then that would explain why you don’t know so much of those things I asked you to imagine because none of those things have existed yet!”

“Ten points for Gryffindor.” Dreamfinder quoted, ending it with a hearty laugh.

“You sneaky son of a ding-dong— why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“I thought you’d already know about it. And if you hadn't, I didn't think you would believe me at first. For one thing, our history between Figment and me at that time was what inspired the Disney Company to create an attraction in our honor, which I don’t know exactly how they managed to find that out. And with you being a huge ‘Disney fan’, as they call it, you would already know something about that. Hence part of the reason you must have worked at those amusement parks for. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, it is. But I thought that was just a made-up story the Disney Imagineers made up beforehand for the attraction that got scratched. It never said ANYTHING of this event in the history books I’ve read in school.”

“The Chairman of the Academy in my time probably would have liked it best to keep their involvement a secret so the police wouldn’t interfere with their innovating. It’s a private university specifically for intelligent minds whose ideals fall into the hands of science and innovation. If the public or the police would have found out what and how that all happened, the academy would probably have shut down forever and Figment and I would have come into this world alone without seeing our friend, Fye again or see the academy flourish with your modern technology. So of course it wouldn’t be in your history books. My estimate is that they never wanted to mention that topic ever again.”

“But if nobody would consider recalling that day, wouldn’t they have forgotten you two? And speaking broadly, how did you manage to travel through time?”

“I’ll explain more about that part tomorrow when I can.” said Dreamfinder. “But as for how Figment and I had travel there, I’ll give you two words that's five syllables: imagine-nation”

“You’ll really tell me more?” Rachel asked.

“Do you want to know more?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“Will you be alright?”

“I’ve been alright for a long time now.”

“When did that start?”

“You’ll see.”

“No fair.”

“Goodnight, Rachel.” Dreamfinder chuckled.

“Goodnight.” Rachel sighed. Rachel finally stands up with her legs finally stretching, but before she takes her first step away, her legs gets caught by a hand belonging to Dreamfinder.

“Oh Rachel, I almost forgot.” Dreamfinder reaches into his pocket, avoiding not to get whatever goop is left on his arm, and pulled something out. The blue necklace he had made in the beginning had been sitting in that pocket for a long while now. In the flickering candlelight, the sapphire gem glistened as well as its silver chain that ropes it. Dreamfinder, struggling to lift himself up to sit, along with Rachel's help, unclasped the chain and put the necklace back around Rachel’s neck like he did before. “It was made for you.”

“Thanks.” said Rachel, happy to have the necklace with her again. “But let me tell you this first: I wasn’t lying when I told you that this Yuna person is in the necklace or the things she told me. You can say what you want about it, but as far as I know, it’s not going to change the fact that she’s here.”

“If you believe in that, then fine, I won’t say anything else. But even being the Dreamfinder who believes in a lot of possibilities, I honestly don’t see how that is possible. I would have known she had been present earlier. If I'm convinced that she’s real like you say she is, not only will I apologize to you a thousand times, but I’d like to see and ask why she hasn’t shown herself to me yet.”

“That’s fair enough, I guess.”

“And Rachel?”

“Yes?”

“In case you’re still feeling bad about what has happened on my end or what’s been happening, don’t worry about me. I’m not going to leave anyone behind.”

“That’s actually pretty relieving to hear.”

“Goodnight, Rachel.”

“Goodnight.”

This time, Rachel had left for sure. She exits the tent leaving Dreamfinder with the company of the sleeping dragon and Katkin and the dancing glow of candlelight fire. Looking behind him to where Figment is sleeping, who is now solidified again out of his creator's beliefs returning, Dreamfinder smiles with relief and gladness for his friend’s safety. He’d pet Figment on the shoulder, but did not want to risk him getting infected like he is right now. The least he was able to do was grab a blanket and cover it over Figment. But just as Dreamfinder was about to settle himself back down with his head on his pillow, he hears a soft grunt coming from behind.

“I’m not wasted space, am I, Dreamfinder?” Figment whimpers in his grunts.

“Hmm?” Dreamfinder turns his head with his eyes aimed straight at the tired Figment.

“You’re not ever going to get rid of me, are you?”

“Never.” Dreamfinder smiles.

Reassured that Dreamfinder is sincere and would not let him go in a terrible manner, Figment takes his blanket and flutters his tiny wings in a hovering height. He lands right next to Dreamfinder’s torso, giving Dreamfinder a need to be concerned for his friend’s health, which drowned out his smiling.

“Figment, if you stay too close to me you’ll get infected, too.” said Dreamfinder.

“I’ll take my chances.” Figment smiles back. He yawns "You're my...best friend." He turns around with his orange-spine back towards Dreamfinder wrapping himself in his blanket. The dragon sighs with relief that his friendship with his creator is still intact. His heavy eyelids close once again, shutting himself from the harsh world of reality and taking himself on a one-way trip to having much sweet and kinder dreams. Dreamfinder watches Figment begin to lightly snore. With Figment being so close to him, Dreamfinder felt the need to swell up a couple tears, though not to the point of sobbing. He lies his head back down on his pillow, allowing his own eyes to close and join his traveling imaginary companion in a new realm of such sweet fantasies.

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel returns back to her bedroom in the Dream Machine where she plops herself on top of her bed. It has been a long day of stress and emotion, especially with most of it aimed towards Dreamfinder’s near demise. As tired as she is, Rachel did not want to wake up for even another minute. Her thoughts backfire at the glowing of her necklace, reminding her that Yuna is still inside it.

Suddenly, the sprite flies out of the gem and appears before Rachel changing into her human form. It’s the same as Rachel had last seen her in her nightmare back when the Abiteth’s gas had engulfed her. At least this time, she’s come without any warning or possible danger to alert the poor traveling girl.

“I see you’re very tired now.” said Yuna, making such an obvious observation.

“Oh Yuna. Hi.” Rachel said as she turns her head towards Yuna.

“I don’t blame for being in this state. It has been pretty exciting the past couple days.”

“Yuna, I…I’m sorry for how I acted towards you. You did save my life from being stuck in a nightmare and you helped me save my friends from a horrible fate.”

“I’m happy to help, Rachel. I may have come with a slightly different mission in mind, but I’m more than happy to help you in any way.”

“Why are you here anyway?” Rachel asks.

“I can’t tell you yet.” said Yuna gravely. “There is much I’m not yet ready to reveal.”

“I’m not surprised. You wouldn’t even show yourself to Dreamfinder or Figment or Alex that you came. And Dreamfinder still doesn’t believe me in all of this.”

“I think it would be best, for now, that I lay low and keep a low profile for a while. There is much I have to do, but if I tell you now I’d risk getting all of you in an even greater danger. Far much worse than what the Abiteth has done.”

“Worse?”

“Worse. But if you’ll have me, I will help you in your quest in finding the geodesic sphere and protect you from all the possible dangers you and you friends get into.”

“Wait. How did you know we’re finding the geodesic sphere?”

“It’s all you’ve three have been talking about. So do we have a deal?”

Rachel stood there in deep thought. She could not make with what Yuna really is, who she is, or why she is here. If she allows Yuna to come with her, she might get some answers. On the other hand, she mentioned something about “possible dangers”. If what Yuna says is true, then who is to say she did not warn Rachel about it. But still, her curiosity over Yuna’s presence has left her puzzled. She shows up to Rachel out of nowhere and is offering her a secret service to her and Rachel’s friends. Perhaps she may know a lot about how the imagination traveling process works. Maybe more than Dreamfinder does. Whatever the reason, she just has to take that chance.

“Alright, I guess you can tag along.” said Rachel with a sigh in agreement. “And if you must, you can take residence in my necklace since you like it so much in there.”

“Thank you, Rachel.” Yuna smiled calmly. “Though if you don’t mind, would it be alright if I stayed out of the necklace and watch you overnight? Just in case something else happens?”

“Whatever floats your boat. You’ve already creep me out more than enough as it is.”

And with that, the giggling Yuna changes back into her sprite form and floats over onto Rachel’s bed. She curls up onto the mattress and wraps herself up in Rachel’s blanket, leaving Rachel with nothing but the dirty, dusty clothes she is wearing. Then Yuna conjures up a little sparkle of light and shoots it gently to Rachel’s chest. In an instant, her clothes change from her adventure outfit to a long sleeved dark blue nightshirt and a thin-layered black pants for pajamas. Her clothes are now being washed somewhere on Yuna knows how, but Rachel decides to let it be for the night. Rachel climbs up to her bed next to the sleeping sprite. She can only wonder how and why Yuna is here, but more importantly, will Dreamfinder survive the cold night of the desert in his sickening infected being.


	27. Chapter 27

Early in the morning, the strange desert woman in the hood arrives back into the tent. With her, she carries a basket of bread, a jug of water, bandages and more herbs with medicinal properties as well as a kettle of boiling water. Upon arriving, she sees Dreamfinder still sleeping on the green mat with Figment and Alex in each side. The sunlight that is shining bright illuminates the inside of the tent. It reaches up to Dreamfinder’s sleeping eyelids, making them clench tightly at the reaction. Beside him, the morning light has made Figment yawn big and Alex begin to stretch. Only Dreamfinder wakes up from the light. His heart leaps at the sudden surprise of the hooded stranger standing before him.

Kneeling down beside the Dreamfinder where Figment had previously slept, the stranger sets the basket down. She then removes her hood and reveals her identity. Under the hood, the stranger is obviously a female. Her physique is more of an anthropomorphic meerkat than human despite her human mannerisms. Her dark brown eyes resemble boulder opal gems as earthy as the desert sand at night. With it, her dark brown hair, curled and frizzy from the scorching sun’s wave of dry heat dangles and bounces with each step. The surface on her face and body is full of short tan fur from top to bottom. Her nose is round and black like a stone and her ears a not human, but meerkat ears drooping downward instead of standing upward. Her fashion choice is light weighted with a satin sleeveless jacket vest robed with silk scarves and short-cut draperies and two layers of light shirts. The baggy pants are white stained with the dirt of sand. She wears no shoes. Her feet and hands are more like paws than of a human’s, especially since she has four fingers and toes instead of five. That would explain how Rachel had noticed her hands looking like claws.

She takes out a small cup from the basket and pours the kettle of hot water in it. Added next is the dried herbs she had crushed beforehand: peppermint, sarsaparilla root, and Assamese plant leaves. Then with a stirring stick, the meerkat-faced stranger mixes the ingredients together perfecting a nice hot cup of black peppermint tea. The aroma of the tea has filled the entire interior of the tent, alerting the scents of the other three travelers to a full wake with its peppery chilling rush. 

“kayf tasher?” the stranger asks in her Arabian accent.

“I beg your pardon?” Dreamfinder asks, raising an eyebrow to his confusion.

“qulta, kayf halk?”

“Forgive me, but I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”

“ ‘ana ‘araa. Rubma…” then the stranger speaks in a different language saying, “bu dil?”

“Uh…I still don’t understand.”

“Boreíte na katalávete tóra?” she spoke again in another new language.

“…Mmm?” his eyes squinted with no ease in his conscious. He may never be able to understand what this person is saying.

“H-how about now? Yes?”

“Yes! That’s it! Boy, I was afraid we’d never be able to communicate.”

“Oh, I see!” the stranger exclaims with excitement. “You speak Falzimmeran!”

“Well actually, where we come from, we call it English.” Dreamfinder clarifies.

“English? Strange. I’ve never heard of that word before.”

“Probably because my friends and I are from a different world.”

“I thought you looked too peculiar to be one of our own. Especially considering the way you dress.”

“Heh. We…we get that a lot.”

“What I was trying to ask you was if you are feeling alright? Are you feeling better from the disease?”

“Yes, very much. Thank you. You medication is working wonders for me.”

“I am glad. But to be sure, I want you to drink this.”

“What is it?”

“Black tea with peppermint, sarsaparilla, and Assamese.”

“Oh!” Dreamfinder takes a sip of the tea. Liking it, and not realizing how very thirsty he was after three days of recovering, he gulps down the entire cup. He did not even care how hot or cold it was. “My goodness, this is really good!”

“Thank you, when I’m not journeying across the desert I take the time to make tea for my clan. It is both a hobby out of my best interest as well as the only useful thing I can do out here.”

“I see. Oh, I’m sorry! We’ve never been properly introduced. I am—”

“Dreamfinder. Yes, I know. Your friends have already explained it to me. I am Zahara, daughter of the chief of this Clan of Deshandjah.”

“Zahara. That’s a lovely name. I most definitely would like to thank all of you for providing me and my friends with such fine treatment.”

“It is our pleasure to help. Now I must ask you…you have mentioned that you are from a different world. If that is so, where did you come from? And why have you come?”

“My friends and I are explorers from a far-off land called Earth, except for our friend Alex. I suppose they may have already told you that part, have they?”

“Yes, they have. But how are you all together if this is true?” Zahara asks.

“We traveled together to and from different worlds using the power of both science and our imagination.” said Dreamfinder, excited to explain about his journey. “The science part maybe a bit too technical to explain out here, if I’m not wrong, but the imagination part is the most fun. Whatever we picture in our heads from places to objects to even a variety of people, the dream power that our vehicle outside is powered with takes us there. Figment and I, before we met with Rachel back home and Alex in another world called Iyrilia, we have normally traveled across these realms by ourselves until recently. You see, we’re looking for a large spherical structure that is said to hold great mounds of energy inside. It was once located back home on Earth where the current location of my school had been researching and testing it for the best use possible. That was until I accidentally made it disappear in a...‘fearful’ mishap. But that mishap has been taken cared of already. Now the hard part is finding the structure, bring it back if possible and perhaps learn its secrets. We don’t…know exactly what it actually is yet or where it is. And that is why we’re looking for it.”

“And you’ve come to the Deshandjah Desert to see if this structure you’re looking for was here.”

“That’s right. We’ve searched here for about a month, more or less, but we haven’t found it with any luck. Then just as we were giving up, we found an oasis here and cooled off before we started exploring this cave, which I suppose that was actually the opening of a giant shell.”

“You must mean the Abiteth monster.” Zahara guesses.

“If that is what you call a spider-legged creature with large squid tentacles as part of a face, then yes.” Dreamfinder confirms. “I take it you know of it?”

“Yes, my clan and I have lived, survived and fallen prey to the Abiteth’s appetite for thousands of years. I spent all of my life training day and night so I would one day face the beast and destroy it once and for all. To do that so I would avenge my fallen brethren and past ancestors who had become carnage to it. Overtime, the people who have been very lucky to escape the beast’s jaws have not always been so lucky to recover from its residue or its haunting memories. Many of them died from the infection, which makes you, Dreamfinder, of all people, very lucky. I call you lucky because as time went by, our clerics, apothecaries and priests have experimented, tested and perfected the antidote that can cure the most unfortunate of the Abiteth’s victims; the same antidote we have used on you these past few days. We thank our ancestors, as well as our highest lords in the heavens, for blessing us with this knowledge of medicine. 

Then just days ago, when I believed I was ready to take on the Abiteth monster, we have heard the shrieks and loud thumps of its legs shuffling in the sand and saw from a distance a giant cloud of dust flying about. We followed it, where I hoped I would finally have my chance in defeating the creature. But by the time we arrived, we have found your flying mechanism already pulling the Abiteth out of the shell it lived in with your large net and watched the monster die with its ashes taken by the winds. Also upon arriving, when your machine has landed, we have found your unconscious self and your friends stranded and alone with no means of help. We had believed that before we found you, you have already been lured into its lair and had and breathed the noxious fumes and been covered with its slime, infecting you. After seeing the creature finally die after all this time, I’m afraid that all of the years of my training and chasing the creature now may have all been for naught.”

“Oh, Zahara. I’m so sorry.” Dreamfinder expresses with his guilt. “If we had known about this, we would—”

“It is alright, Dreamfinder.” Zahara smiles. “We have fought and ran from this creature for thousands of years without success. To finally see it dead and gone for the rest of eternity has brought peace for our future and an incredible weight off of our shoulders for the very best. If it weren’t for you and your friends, we probably would have had to face the beast for a thousand millenniums more. We all owe you our lives, forever in your debts.”

“I honored, really. And I’m sure Rachel, Alex and Figment will be much obliged to hear that.”

“There is one thing I do not understand.”

“What’s that?”

“When we found you all three days ago, I spoke in my own culture’s language and yet Rachel was the only person who was able to speak it as well, while everyone else couldn’t.”

“Yes, that’s right. Rachel mentioned this to me last night. I’m just as confused as you must be.”

“And what’s even more strange is that you couldn’t understand me either, and you’re the same race as she is! Though, I’ve never actually seen a feminine version of a humanoid before.”

“Really? I suppose that makes Rachel a rare specimen around here.”

“Yes, most definitely.” said Zahara with agreement. “Added with her language, too. Did you at least understand something I said before I spoke your English?”

“Well…sort of, actually.” Dreamfinder answered, though unsure of his reply. “All I got out of you was ‘how’, ‘this’ and ‘feeling’. Other than that, it was all gibberish to be, not to insult your language of course.”

“What’s gibberish?” Figment yawns. His purple scales sparkle in the creeping sunlight that is sneaking through the small leftover opening of the tent. His wings extend to as far as it can stretch. He stretches more of his body like a cat would do it, and then like a dog doing yoga. His neck cracks. His whole body now feels as loose a single strand of spaghetti.

“Good morning, Figment.” said Dreamfinder happily.

“Hello, Figment.” said Zahara. “Did you sleep well?”

“Hmm? Hey, Zahara! You DO speak Falzimmeran!” Figment exclaims with excitement.

Surprised to hear Figment say that, Zahara and Dreamfinder look at each other with blank faces. After seconds of silence, they both felt the need to laugh. So they did. Their laughter fills up the entire tent echoing and bouncing off the tarp walls into Alex’s ears. The young Katkin opens its eyes heavily. His head buzzes out the annoyance of receiving a headache from this continuously loud merriment. Even plugging those giant cat ears of his would not have helped prevent it.

“Hey guys, can you keep it down?” Alex groans.

“Oh sorry, Alex.” Dreamfinder giggles. “You just missed out on something funny.”

“I know. I heard it. It’s funny. Are you better yet?”

“Hmmm…” Zahara looks to Dreamfinder, observing what is left of the goop on his body. Compared to today, the Dreamfinder’s torso had been smothering with it three days ago. Now there is more skin than goop itself. “The medication seems to be working wonders as you have said, Dreamfinder. Since there is still a small fraction of the Abiteth’s residue left, I suggest we wait one more day with one more cup of the black tea and see if you’ll be completely cured.”

“That’s a relief.” sighs Dreamfinder with relief.

“Dreamfinder, you’re one lucky guy!” Figment gleefully said.

********************************************************************************************************

Peaking through the window of the cabin, the desert sun shines onto Rachel’s head heating up her hair. As usual, the heat is beginning to make her head sweat. The heat intensifies as Rachel lies comfortably on her bed sheets. Just as well, since having those sheets covering her would only make her feel even hotter to die of heatstroke, if it can be called that. Yuna, however, seems to be enjoying herself with Rachel’s blanket as she had been last night. It’s as if the heat is not affecting her at all! The aura in her sprite form flickers heavenward as she nestles in the covers. Her murmuring in her sleep is synchronized with off moments of giggling. 

But then a swift pull of Rachel taking the blanket has made Yuna swirl into the air, waking her up. Yuna hits the ceiling with her mind dazed and confused. And now looking down, she sees Rachel completely, and finally, covered in her sheets. With slight agitation, Yuna then swoops down and performs a bounce attack on Rachel from head to toe and back up again. The bouncing has irritated Rachel more than enough. The girl’s eyes open slowly and angrily. Her pupils follow the springing sprite back and forth. With each bounce, the surprisingly weightless sprite increasingly presses its landing pressure. Finally, as soon as Yuna has bounced down toward the other side of the bed, Rachel grabs her end of the blanket and quickly wraps it over the sprite.

“Hey! Let me out!” Yuna shouts as she attempts to fight her way out of the blanket.

“Morning Yuna.” Rachel yawns and chuckles, “What’s the matter? I thought you like sleeping in my blankets?”

“You are a true card, Rachel.” Yuna replied with her voice muffled inside. “Don’t forget you’ve allowed me to sleep here last night.”

“I didn’t think you were going to take all of my blankets at once.”

“People like my kind take great pride and comfort in soft cushions and blankets, Rachel. I must say Dreamfinder really knows his soft fabrics. He must really want to make you feel comfortable on this trip.”

“Except I haven’t been getting much of a chance to actually feel how comfortable it is because of the heat.”

“Did you sleep well?” Yuna asks.

“I tried,” said Rachel, “but I couldn’t stop thinking about Dreamfinder’s condition. I hope he’s okay.”

“I’ve taken notice of his body being covered in a lot less broth than before. He seems to be in a lot better shape today.”

“Enough to where the disease is no longer contagious?”

“More or less, but I’d be wary of it in case it continues to spread.”

“I’ll take that into account.”

“You should get yourself cleaned up, too.” Yuna suggests. “Clean skin is happy skin.”

“You’re one to talk since you have pale skin.” Rachel points out.

“Go take a shower now, Rachel.”

“Bossy, bossy.”

********************************************************************************************************

Fully refreshed and clean, and with Yuna hiding in the necklace again, Rachel steps out of the cabin area to meet up with Dreamfinder and the others. As she comes out, she sees a couple of the other hooded persons from Zahara’s clan curiously observing the pilot’s seat at the head of the Dream Machine. Given that no one in this world has ever seen a dirigible of any kind before, she can tell that these two people do not understand what and how the controls work. On the other hand, they might not be just looking at it in a curious manner but also snooping around for anything suspicious. That would make it obvious enough for Rachel to walk up to these characters and ask some questions.

“Can I help you two?” Rachel asks firmly.

The two hooded men jolted their heads in shock by Rachel’s voice. Unsure of what to do, they both jump off the Dream Machine and run back to the camp carrying with them a brown satchel that has been clanging and hanging over one of their shoulders as they went forth. Noticing how fast they are running, Rachel watches them go. Was it something I said, she wondered? Could it be possible that those people actually understood what Rachel just said, especially since how she and Zahara were able to communicate at their first meeting a few days ago? Maybe.

To be on the safe side, Rachel walks over to the pilot seat to see if anything had been stolen. It looked like everything is still in its place. Then again, how would Rachel even know what is here or not. The Dream Machine doesn’t belong to her, but to Dreamfinder.

That is when Rachel had remembered what she was going to do. She jumps off the Dream Machine and runs straight for Dreamfinder’s tent. She could tell which tent is the one considering how it’s the only one in the camp covered in red tarp while all the other tents are white. From what Zahara had told Rachel along with Figment and Alex, the red tents are used for medical purposes. In other words, it’s where sick people go into. If the Sun hadn’t beat down so much, to run a good thirty steps from the Dream Machine to Dreamfinder’s tent would not be a problem. Running up to halfway in between, she decides to walk the rest of the way. Already Rachel feels the need to quench her thirst. By now, she should have known that even in the early morning, the Sun picks up the heat very quickly.

Dreamfinder’s tent finally comes into range from where Rachel had stopped to catch her breath. She found it a wonder how she had managed to maneuver through that short, yet very exhausting, trip. She may just faint herself. But Rachel continues forth anyway. Dreamfinder became the top priority on her list of worries, if there is one. She pulls the draped curtain of the red tent aside with heavy breaths, finding Dreamfinder and Figment with Zahara having their morning tea.

“Rachel! Hi!” Figment cheers.

“Oh! Good morning, Rachel” Dreamfinder says with glee.

“I…HATE…the heat!” Rachel exclaims exhaustingly.

“Ew…” Figment groans.

“Goodness, Rachel!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “You look like you’ve just sweat yourself a storm.”

“Storm, flood, call it what you want. I’m sweating tons of waterfalls of it just standing here. I can’t stand this heat anymore! No offense, Zahara.”

“Non taken, Rachel.” said Zahara. “It would seem that even fleshier beings like yourselves are likely to burn quickly.”

“Here, Rachel. Have some tea.” Dreamfinder says as he holds out a freshly poured cup of the black tea.

“Just be careful not to drink it so—” Figment tries to say.

Ignoring Figment and without thinking, or considering giving Dreamfinder a “thank you”, Rachel grabs the cup from Dreamfinder and gulps the tea down her throat. Halfway finished, she realizes her throat beginning to swell up rapidly. There is so much heat rushing down there that it is making her eyes begin to tear up. Rachel stops drinking and abruptly hands the cup back to Dreamfinder, revealing her eyes completely dilated, filled with tears, and red.

“Ow….” she whimpers, squealing at a high note.

“I…probably should have told that the tea is hot.” Dreamfinder shyly flushes in embarrassment.

This is where Rachel slowly lies down on the green satin carpet and turns her back against her two friends, clenching her hands upon her arms and shutting her eyes tight. This heat from the desert air and from the cup of tea she just drank has finally made her “snap” inside. Out of her greatest discomfort yet, Rachel starts whimpering nonstop. She is ready to cry in defeat; the heat has taken her.

“Are you okay, Rachel?” Figment asks.

“No!” Rachel cried. 

“You must forgive my friend.” Dreamfinder says, returning to his conversation with Zahara. “It seems that she is more used to a much cooler climate than this desert.”

“Palm Springs is colder than this place!” Rachel shouts from behind.

“Take it easy, Rachel. It’s gonna be alright.” Figment speaks with comfort.

Rachel groans. It’s a wonder how she hasn’t gotten sick the whole time they were stranded in this desert.

“Now I am beginning to see why there aren’t so many of you humans in the Deshandjah Desert.” Zahara realizes.

“I believe I must get better soon before Rachel starts feeling worse.” said Dreamfinder, realizing the situation.

“Again, I estimate that you will be completely cured by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Hang in there, Rachel.” Figment says, petting her shoulder. “Just one more day and we’ll be off back home.”

“Hmm? Hey, where’s Alex?” Rachel asks. She finds her Katkin friend missing from where he had slept last night. He is nowhere to be seen within this tent.

“LET ME GO!” a familiar voice shouted.

Out of the blue, two of Zahara’s hooded clan barges into the tent holding onto Alex by his golden furry arms. His teeth are clenched as he tries to struggle himself away from his captors. His legs are locked I attempts to hold himself back from being forced in. His tail even tries swatting at the backsides of the hooded men, but that had been proven useless.

“Alex?” Dreamfinder shot out first.

“zahratan,” one of the hooded men speaks out to Zahara, “laqad alqabd ealaa hadha wahid sariqatan min wahidat min alkhiam ladayna.”

“He says they’ve caught Alex trying to steal something from one of the other tents!” Rachel translates.

“What?!” Dreamfinder exclaims.

“Alex?” Figment exclaims also. “It can’t be!”

“Let me handle this.” said Zahara, giving the assurance that whatever has just happened will be settled calmly. She speaks in her language saying, “ ‘ayn kan?” In English, she said, “Where was he?”

“kan yanzur min khilal makhzunina hayth wajadna lah aintizaean wahidatan min haqayibina wanuzul.” the other hooded man said.

“What did he say, Rachel?” Dreamfinder asks.

“He says they caught him snatching a satchel from their inventory and ran off.” Rachel replies.

“Alex…”

“Correction, guys.” Alex starts. “I was retrieving something that belonged to us. We’ve been robbed!”

“What?!” All of Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel shout with shock.

“Robbed?” Figment says, as his yellow eyes grow big with disbelief.

“Where is the satchel?” Zahara asks in English, or Falzimmeran in her case.

“Right here.” Alex pulls out the satchel from his back. He throws the satchel to Figment. Figment catches it and opens the lid. Inside it are items that are most definitely not of this new world’s. They have been robbed!

“Hey, my logbook! And my camera!” Rachel shouts as she grabs her book and camera back.

“My hat and goggles!” Dreamfinder, also in shock, exclaims. “And my pocket watch, too!”

“My bunny slippers!” Figment cheers as he takes his slippers back and hugs them. With everyone sating at the purple dragon weirdly, his only reply was “What? Dragons can get cold feet, too, you know.”

“Who could have taken these from us?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Those men…” Rachel murmurs.

“What?”

“I was coming out of the cabin earlier today when I saw two other hooded persons snooping around the pilot seat of our aircraft. They were even carrying that same bag as this one. I recognize the faded pattern on this lid."

“They must have been robbing us blind while Dreamfinder was trying to get better!” Figment specifies.

“But who did this?” Dreamfinder asks.

“I may have an idea who.” Zahara says solemnly. She shouts to the hooded men. “Release the boy and bring me Hashama and Misushi immediately!”

Releasing Alex, the two men went out of the red tent. Alex then joins with Dreamfinder and friends sitting down for tea despite the leftover sand that has brushed off of his fur into the air. At least they have their stuff back.

“Are you hurt, Alex?” Zahara asks. 

“Other than my arm being sore from fighting against those guys, I’m fine.” Alex pouts.

“Would you like some healing there?”

“Sure. If you must.”

“Be nice, Alex.” said Dreamfinder. “If it weren’t for Zahara, we’d be stranded in the desert still, I’d be dead and she wouldn’t have vouched for your innocence.”

“Fine whatever. It’s this heat that’s killing my cool here.”

“Join the club. We’ve got jackets.” Rachel jokes in monotone.

“Keep the jackets. I’m sweating too much to even think about them.”

“I apologize for what has happened.” said Zahara. “I should have known something like this would come about.”

“That’s okay, Zahara.” Figment says, wearing his bunny slippers. “There’s been no harm done.”

“If it had stayed that way, your stuff would not have been taken.”

“Well, now that we have them back, all is forgiven.”

“I wish I can say the same for Hashama and Misushi.”

“Who are they?” Rachel asks.

“Two of our clan, incredibly skilled with…how should I put it? Treasure hunting. We use them for stealing back what has wrongfully been taken from us and return them to its rightful owners.”

“That sounds very noble of you to do that.” Dreamfinder confirms.

“Yes.” said Zahara. “Unfortunately, however, they seem to have been taking their job a little too seriously. Whatever loot we take back, they selfishly take a small portion of it for themselves. It makes me feel regretful having them as relatives.”

“Relatives?”

“Are they your brothers?” Alex asks.

“Hashama is, but not Misushi. He’s my cousin.” Zahara replies. “They’re good at what they do alone, but together they’re unstoppable! Hopefully, I’ll finally get them to stop today once and for all.”

“Zahara! We’ve found them!” The hooded men, that are assumed to be guards, announced.

They come in with two more hooded men, both of which are shorter than Zahara and the guards. They remove their hoods and reveal their identities. Hashama is the one with the same colored fur as Zahara but with darker hair on the top. Misushi has a lighter tone of tan, maybe a dirty cream color shade with light brown hair on his head. Their eyes look down solemnly. They don’t seem to be in the mood to deal with their sister/cousin. Underneath the fur on their cheeks, their skin flushes with regret. Nobody can tell whether or not their legs are shaking. It’s as if they are being given the final judgment for their lives. For what they did to our heroes, it might as well be.

“Hashama? Misushi? What have you two done?” Zahara strictly says.


	28. Chapter 28

“Just a couple items.” said Hashama, Zahara’s brother.

Hashama and cousin Misushi have just been caught stealing items from Dreamfinder and his friends: his hat, goggles and pocket watch, Rachel’s logbook and camera, and Figment’s bunny slippers. Hearing Hashama admit that they have taken a “couple of items” has proven that Alex was not stealing anything, but retrieving them. And Zahara has made it clear of who the real culprits are.

“I thought it was bad enough that you take what we take back for yourselves, but what you have done is beyond what I’ve know of you.” said Zahara in a strict tone.

“But Sis,” Hashama argues, “we’ve been giving them the medical treatment for four days now. What we’ve taken should be payment enough.”

“After all they have done for us? These four travelers are heroes! They have just ridden us of the greatest threat of our existence that has terrorized us since the beginning. That is far beyond more than payment enough. If anything, we should be paying them back. Healing Mr. Dreamfinder back to his health is the least we can do to thank them.”

“Actually, it feels like it’s a lot more than least on my end.” said Dreamfinder.

“It’s true they have helped us, cousin Zahara.” Misushi interrupts. “But can’t we at least keep one of them as a souvenir?”

“Absolutely not!” Zahara shouts.

“Actually…I think they can.” Rachel counters.

“What?” 

“They can?” Dreamfinder said.

“Do you see this camera, Zahara?” Rachel asks as she holds up her camera. “With this and a click of a button, I can make an instant picture of anything I want. Including people.”

“Are you suggesting we take picture of all of us and give it to them?” Alex guesses.

“It’s better than nothing.”

“Why?”

“Just makin’ memories is all.”

“Aw yeah! Taking pictures by the light of the sun!” Figment cheers, pulling out a pair of sunglasses over his eyes.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Dreamfinder agrees.

“So you are okay with giving them something.” Zahara asks.

“Well I wasn’t happy with having all of our stuff stolen, number one. But since I’m personally feeling generous enough to give back after all you have done for us and especially to me, I figure a picture of all of us together may be worthwhile to your liking. After all, precious memories are far more valuable than any other treasure. Priceless even. The more memories you cherish, the longer they last throughout your lifetime. Believe me, I know.”

“That was so beautiful!” Figment sniffed. “Waaaaaaaaahhhh!”

“Easy, Figment.” said Alex, giving Figment a pat on his shoulder. “There’s no use crying over…well, there’s no use crying.”

“Personally, after what just happened, I hardly believe that we deserve such a nice contribution. Some of us anyway.” Zahara said, turning her crude tone towards Hashama and Misushi who cringed their shoulders a little with guilt. In a softer tone, she says as her head turns back to everyone else, “But since you’ve done us a huge favor, we will be glad to do what you want. Like I’ve said, we’re forever in your debts.”

“Does that mean ‘picture time?’ ” Figment asks, emphasizing his excitement.

“Yes.”

“Yippee!”

“As for you two,” Zahara scowls at Hashama and Misushi, “when we’re done with this ‘picture time’, I will see to it that the chief is to be informed of your crime against our guests and let him decide your punishment.”

“Father? Please!” Hashama shouts. “You’re beginning to soften up like he is right now!”

“Now?” Misushi started, “Uncle Daji has been a softie all of his life! He’s never made any good decisions at all!”

“And to see Zahara turn into father, why am I not surprised?”

“That ‘softie’ has so made good decisions in his lifetime and all for the better!” Zahara exclaims. “The only reason you so shamelessly say that, regarding that the ‘softie’ is your father, too, and your uncle, is because he didn’t choose the choices you two would normally make, which were clearly the bad ones! I am to become the leader of the Clan of Deshandjah when father’s time is passed. And when that happens, you two will have to follow my orders and my decisions on the path of goodness. Otherwise, I will demote you both from your current job to something even less.”

“Harsh.” Rachel whistles.

“You cannot do this to us, Zahara!” Hashama shouts. “For one thing, Misushi and I are both older than you. And being older means we both still have the authority boss you around unless father says not to.”

“Which we probably should remind Uncle Daji considering how you’ve wasted everyone’s time healing this…whatever he is…” Misushi points out referring to Dreamfinder despite his condition, “and doing this without asking for authorization from either of us or Uncle Daji.”

“Would father turn down a man in need of medical treatment?” Zahara asks through her breath. “Do you really believe that our father and leader would abandon these people in need of our help? The people who had defeated the Abiteth for us?”

“They are not so different from us two for one thing.” Hashama remarks. “You’ve trained your entire life to fight the beast. These people just came in out of the blue, out of nowhere, and stole your destiny in trying to defeat it yourself! We could have done it ourselves if we wanted to. And now you’ll never have that chance again!”

“So be it! At least we all don’t have to live in fear any longer. And at the very least of all of that, because of them we get to live! If father had been against this whole idea of helping them after helping us in the first place, he would have told me otherwise immediately after I have made the command. For all of this I am proud of what I’ve done and you two should, too.” Zahara then calls for the two hooded men and shouts, “You two! Take them away.”

“What do you want us to do with them, Zahara?” asked one of the hooded men.

“Take them back to their tent and keep an eye on them until father and I return. I don’t want to risk the chance of them trying to steal whatever else our guests have.”

“As you wish.” said the second hooded man. “Come along you two, you’re coming with us.”

The hooded men grab hold of Hashama and Misushi’s arms to the back and push them out of the tent and into the sun. When the last bit of the sunrays disappears as the curtain closes, Zahara’s face soften with a deep breath of relief. She turns back to Dreamfinder, Alex, Figment and Rachel only to find them motionless in their position and staring at her in silence. Only Rachel, who watches Zahara with her eyes half-closed in remorse, was able to break it.

“Nice happy family.” Rachel jokes.

“I apologize again for you having to witness that.” said Zahara. “It did not come out the way I had hoped.”

“I think you handled that quite well.” said Figment.

“I agree.” said Dreamfinder. “Standing up for yourself and for us like that was very brave of you.”

“Thank you.” said Zahara, trying to show a little smile. “Though they’re right about one thing: I’m not the chieftess yet. My father is the chief. And being the youngest in my family, despite my arguments, I am not entitled to give orders to anyone in our clan just yet.”

“The way you handled those guys, I’d say you’re in need of an early inauguration.” Alex teases.

“Considering my birth right, I ought to. I fear that there are more dangers lurking in the camp than what has just happened. Not Abiteth kind of danger, but still bad. Which is why, Dreamfinder, I insist you should get back to resting if you want the rest of that slop to come off completely.”

“If you insist.” said Dreamfinder with a shrug. “I must thank you again for your hospitality, though.”

“It was my pleasure.” replied Zahara with a smile and a small bow. “I shall take my leave now.”

As Alex and Figment help Dreamfinder lie back down onto his green satin carpet bed, Zahara walks up to the entrance of the tent. On the way, she stops in front of Rachel and looks at her with serious eyes. Their stares are locked tight. The brows on Zahara’s head are set firmly at an incline. Straight and deep does her eyes look into Rachel’s. It’s as if Zahara has something to say to the human girl. At least that is what Rachel has come to believe.

“May I have a moment for with you outside, Rachel?” Zahara asks.

“Yeah…sure.” Rachel said with uncertainty.

The girls exit Dreamfinder’s tent together. The hot desert heat greets them as it beats them down like a giant anvil of torridity. In an instant, a cascade of sweat comes running down on Rachel’s forehead and cheeks. It’s come to the point where it may be relevant if Rachel staying in the desert with her friends any longer she may finally die of heat stroke. As for Zahara, it’s a wonder how she manages to survive in the desert with her fur over her skin. Perhaps she has short fur.

“You wanted to see me, Zahara?” Rachel asks.

“I wanted to ask you something.” said Zahara. “Four days ago, when we found you, you had come into our world with no knowledge of our native language or culture whatsoever. And yet you were the only person who could speak it. How?”

“Well…to be honest, I don’t even know how I was able to do that. Other than speaking English, or Falzimmeran in your case, and maybe be a bit rusty at speaking Spanish, I’ve never learned your language before. I can imagine that at my home, you’d be speaking something Middle Eastern like Arabic or whatever, but even then I wouldn’t know how to say any of those languages either. I thought we were both speaking the language at first impression.”

“This is strange. Have you considered believing that you may be something other-worldly of you own home?”

“You mean like an alien? No, I’m anything but an alien. That is, on Earth I’m not an alien. Look, I’m just as confused about this as you are. I don’t know what else is there to explain it.”

“Do you suppose it may have something to do with this imagination business your Dreamfinder was just telling me about?” Zahara asks.

“Hmm…you know. Now that I think about it, that might be the case.” said Rachel with her eyes near astonishment of realization. She continues, “When you first spoke to us, I must have imagined myself speaking to you in your language thinking we’d already be communicating with my language.”

“As unbelievable as it sounds, that is pretty fascinating. Your dream-traveling friends must have become a big influence for you.”

“Yes…yes they are.”

“Well then, if that is all of the answers I can get from you of this predicament I shall take my leave for now. My prayers and hopes that your Dreamfinder recovers completely by tomorrow.”

“Likewise.” said Rachel. “Not only for his health, but I’d like to get home as soon as immediately.”

“You must really not enjoy the heat.” Zahara guesses.

“Not at this temperature. Even the deserts at my home state are cooler than this. Not that I mean to insult you or anything.”

“No need for apologies. Your home must be close to your heart as this desert world is close to mine.”

“You’d think so.”

“I’m sorry?”

“N-nothing! It’s nothing.”

“Well at any rate, I must return to my work with my clan. I will see you soon.”

“Bye.”

With Zahara leaving Rachel behind, the human girl could not help watching her new friend off and think. This confusion of her newfound linguistic abilities being related to her imagination is beginning to wear her down, and for once, out of the entire month of searching the desert, it is beating her more than the heat. 

“Be careful, Rachel.” said the unexpected sound of Yuna’s voice echoing in the necklace.

Rachel jumps a small hop in shock. It seems that she begins to forget Yuna’s presence even after a short while. Agreeing with Yuna to accompany Rachel in her travels with Dreamfinder and Figment has sealed the deal of Yuna not leaving her anytime soon. After all, she did help Rachel and the others survive the Abiteth’s appetite.

“Is this going to become a regular thing with you, Yuna?” Rachel said in a pout. She managed to keep her voice down as low as possible to herself the embarrassment of staring eyes.

“If you continue to think too much, you might cause a brainstorm to appear...literally!” said Yuna.

“Brainstorm? What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about your imagination bringing in storm clouds raining water, lightning, and thunder. Enough water could make the whole desert mushy.”

“Really, a real storm appearing just by imagining it out of the blue? Sweet! That’s so cool!” 

“Rachel.”

“Prevent the rain, no brainstorms. Got it.”

********************************************************************************************************

Once again in the dark, as dark as the atmosphere had been in Rachel’s nightmare, the mysterious person sits and watches the heroes resting safely in the heart of the desert. Its fingers drum on one side of his seat. Its glowing red eyes stare solemnly at the now-sleeping Dreamfinder with Figment and Alex beside him and Rachel reentering the tent to join them through its crystal ball. A snort blew from its nostril and shows a bit of teeth with the top right side of its lip lifting upward. The grunts it makes are long and dull showing no other emotion in its expression but irritation.

The room is deadly quiet with no other sound but the person’s constant grunting. One other trace of sound, strong or weak, that vibrates within a mile of the room this person can tell something, or someone, is coming. The darkness is covering everything; enough to engulf every piece of furniture or obstacle standing in the way of the door. The air is chill and still, not at all what the climate is like in the Deshandjah Desert. There, the heat is intense and torturous. And yet the group manages to fight the heat for an entire month, as well as defeating a giant monster three hundred times their sizes.

“So you have survived the Abiteth’s craving.” said the dark-toned and British mystery person as it watches over Dreamfinder resting his head over his pillow. Then, out of nowhere, the person’s crude frown lifts up into an unexpected grin. The person chuckles, “That impresses me a lot. To face such monstrosities with nothing but your mind’s work put into matter, your imagination, is a grand triumph. You truly must be the Tomorrow’s Child I have been searching for after all these years. And now I’ve finally found you.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

Out of the darkness yet another voice sounds. And grimly did it come out. A more of a British accent kind of voice as well as the first person. His tone is darkened and angered by the presence of the first person in the room as he sits on his knees beside it. The light of the crystal ball illuminates onto the face of the latter person, sitting beside the watchful villain with his wrists tied behind him by a pair of futuristic-looking handcuffs. His hair has been messed up like bed hair for who knows how long, along with his gingerly color gone dark brown from previous beatings. His mustache twisted and untrimmed as a result of improper care. Under the bruises his face has collected overtime it colored pale with a blush of pink for his frustration. His clothes are torn and battered to near shreds. His eyes are both scrunched with determination and heavy out of weariness. He is a prisoner. The poor man watches with the first person of Dreamfinder in the crystal ball sleeping soundly and safely, far from its grasp and without a care in the world despite his current condition. That is the only relief he has been given…at this moment.

The mystery person tilts his head with its red eyes down at its hostage without a change of emotion. His fingers stop drumming the instant it hears the man’s voice. Its grin stays the same.

“My, my, I haven’t heard your voice in a long time.” said the cryptic being out of a calm and sincere delight. “Tell me, have I truly found the Tomorrow’s Child?”

“I’ll never talk.” said the hostage.

“What a shame. And just when I was about to yearn for a conversation again.”

“All you want to talk about is death. Even your state of being shouts of death.”

“Yes…but only in times when someone defies my every word, my every command. You, however, are very much of a rare case.”

“The Dreamfinder and his Figment will defeat you, Nebulus!” the hostage raises his voice. “He will take back and return what rightfully belongs to all of us.”

“Yes, yes, I know.” the secret person, Nebulus, as mentioned, replies in annoyance. “I remember hearing you say it a million times in the past, a million times within the past fifteen to twenty years. You’ve made quite a show as well as a distraction for me to take back there, didn’t you?”

“I chose my fate in his honor…his honor of bringing true imagination to life. You know that.”

“Yes…imagination to life…in the palm of my hand. When I find and capture the Tomorrow’s Child, all of his power will be mine. All that is now will no longer be the same. And on top of that, I will rule it with his unimaginable knowledge! No pun intended.”

“You’re a loon, Nebulus. He will never stand for that.”

“You say as if he has a choice.” it said. “You should know after rotting here quietly for so long that when I want something, no one else gets a say in the matter. When I say I want something, it’s mine. And if I don’t get what I want, well…you know.”

Realizing in disgust, the hostage understood the punch line of Nebulus' standards. He shot his head downward with his face cringed and his hands clenched to his suffering of knowing this knowledge. Nebulus remains quiet at his hostage’s actions. As he encourages it, the prisoner’s pain is his gain. It is close t enough for the poor prisoner to sink himself even lower to the ground so he wouldn’t have to face his warden.

“Guard!” Nebulus calls out.

Immediately a guard walks into the darkened room behind Nebulus' chair and the hostage. The guard is tall with long legs and a long body. He is suited in a lightweight silver armor with pale green edgings. His weapons of choice are a whip, another pair of handcuffs, and a long and thick silver staff with a built-in laser gun and shield. His face is more robotic because of his eyes glowing blue, green or red at separate occasions. In fact, he is a robot! And yet, he looks more human by outward appearance than robot or anything else. The one thing that makes him a robot is his willingness to serve his master without question.

“Take him back to his cell.” Nebulus orders. “And make sure he doesn’t do anything…creative along the way.”

The robot guard does as he is told. He grabs onto one of the prisoner’s arms and abruptly pulls him away with his feet and legs dragging behind. Nebulus didn’t bother watching the two leaving him, nor does he listen to the grunts of agony the prisoner makes on the way out. He is too focused on the images on Dreamfinder and his friends in the crystal ball. 

At the moment, Dreamfinder’s forehead is being hydrated by Rachel’s wet cloth. Her tender touch soothing the sick man to his greatest comfort. The Dreamfinder lets out a smile as he listens to Alex telling him many stories, ancient, modern and personal of his home in Iyrilia. And then he chuckles at the sounds of Figment’s mischievous wisecracks and jokes. Little do Dreamfinder or his friends know that in what seems like a safe haven for them, at the moment, they are being watched by very evil eyes.

********************************************************************************************************

Finally, after minutes of good company and drinking good tea, Dreamfinder falls into a deep sleep. Figment, of course, is staying at his creative friend’s side, as any other friend would do. Alex had left and returned to the Dream Machine in case Hashama and Misushi had escaped and gone back to steal more stuff. Rachel, too, has her eyes closed and resting next to Dreamfinder, both for the sake of watching him feel better and since there is really nothing else to do in the desert but sit in the sun on the sand. She had taken off her socks and shoes and her mahogany red sleeveless jacket and set them aside for now to prevent trapping more heat in her body. She lay close to Dreamfinder’s left side where most of the Abiteth’s gross goop had been cured off of his body and became safe for her without getting sick. The Dreamfinder had only taken one glance at her beside him long enough to know that with Rachel around, aside from Figment, he was in very good hands.

Morning and afternoon had passed by quickly until evening had come. By that time, Figment had already fallen asleep just in time for Rachel to wake up. She finds Dreamfinder still asleep on his singular silk sheet bed and notices his heavy breathing of snoring. His snores a noticeable, but light enough to be put up with. She also finds Figment sleeping in Dreamfinder’s arm on the right side of his torso. It seems that there isn’t much of the creature’s goop on the other side either. By now, just as Zahara had predicted, and much to Rachel’s relief, Dreamfinder seems just about cured of the disease.

Rachel lifts herself up for a better view of Dreamfinder’s condition. Sure enough, he is feeling much better. Everything that Zahara and her clan had done to cure him is finally paying off. Rachel’s heart began to soar with her relief. With Dreamfinder cured, they can finally continue their adventures and eventually go home. And vice versa.

Sitting sideways, she watches her host sleep. The softness in Dreamfinder’s face is beginning to melt her every being. The ginger-brown color in his hair, beard and moustache have stroked a nerve in Rachel’s eyes, half-closing them out of sweetness. His body lying perfectly still had made Rachel feel antsy inside. And both of Dreamfinder’s heavily closed eyes are making Rachel want to swoon back down. And why shouldn’t she?

In the past four worlds they have traveled to, including Earth, Dreamfinder, along with Figment, have been keeping their word in letting nothing bad happen to her. Rachel has, by now, assumed that they meant that they were not going to let anything happen to her physically. First, they rescue her back home from whatever possible dangers she could have gotten herself into after getting fired. Then they, sort of, rescued her from the trauma of the events upon entering Iyrilia, then falling down the Crizwalke Tower, and nearly got shot in the head from Crizwalke himself. And now recently, Dreamfinder had heroically risked his body and health in her place from being infected by the Abiteth; something no one has ever done for her before.

Now Rachel wondered what all of those events have been worth. Could it be that all of this was for the sake of some certain emotion? It would make sense since Rachel is a female who has been swept away on a magic dirigible by Dreamfinder, who happens to be a man. On the other hand, it’s always the host’s responsibility to keep his or her guests happy and safe from possible dangers. That may be the only realistic fact Rachel would admit to. Still, there is something else about Dreamfinder that is making her feel something inside. She smiles at her sleeping entertainer. Perhaps maybe…that is, while he is asleep she could…no…yes…no, not really. Though if she could, it would only be for thanking him for caring for her in the past. Without coming up with a solid answer for her thoughts, Rachel leans down with her face directly over Dreamfinder’s. Her tired, yet sweetened light brown eyes begin to lightly close as she slowly leans down closer. Her lips pucker as her senses are about to fade quickly. Just as her lips are about to touch Dreamfinder’s lips and seal the feelings she is having…she stops.

Her eyes open again in a solemn manner. Her lips return to its normal state and have been turned into a defeated frown. Rachel rises back up from on top of Dreamfinder and sits back away from him. With one deep and heavy sigh, Rachel goes back to her slumber. Back before feeling whatever senseless emotions she had just had. Attempting to do what she was about to do had just made her feel embarrassed and humiliated enough. The expression on her face became blank and soulless. Her nose is doing her breathing now. She had one arm now lying on top of the other, closing into the front of her chest with her fists holding up her right cheek. The second Rachel was about to close both eyes completely for the night, her new “friend” shows up.

“It’s okay to feel for another, Rachel.” said Yuna softly as she floats above Rachel in her dimmed sprite form.

“I wasn’t feeling.” Rachel quietly counters with a sigh. “I was inspecting. I…thought I saw another speck of goop in his face from that creature.”

“And you were going to eat it of him. Or better yet, kiss it off?”

“I felt nothing, Yuna. Goodnight!”

“Very well. I won’t bother you of it again. But to be clear, you can always talk to me about anything anytime. Remember that.”

And with that, Yuna flutters back inside Rachel’s necklace. She made sure her light didn’t illuminate bright enough for anyone else to notice. Now Rachel is left alone with her thoughts…her downgrading, yet realistic thoughts. She finally closes her eyes and whispers to herself a sentence that is worth more outside as a lie than inner truth. Something that she believes not even Dreamfinder could be for her.

“No one…no one would ever love me…”


	29. Chapter 29

As the sun begins to rise at dawn, the Dreamfinder and his friends wake up and prepare the Dream Machine to float again for home. Dreamfinder has, at last, recovered from the Abiteth’s disease thanks to Zahara’s remedies. By himself, he was able to lift himself off of his green carpet bed and walk. He had stumbled a step or two at first, but he had gotten the hang of it. Thankfully, he didn’t have to worry about falling down. If he did, the sand would break his fall. And even though Dreamfinder’s weight is three times his own weight, Figment continues to help his friend get back on his feet.

Despite the heat, the group begins to work their “creative” magic in attempts to make the Dream Machine come afloat. This is their last day in the desert, which means no more heat strokes or mirages or poisonous creatures that either lure or jump out and attack. Zahara and her clan has offered to replenish the airship’s inventory with plenty of food and water to last for a month, much to their gratitude for the Dreamfinder and Figment coming in and defeating he age-old tyrant of the desert.

Of all people who has not awoken yet, it’s Rachel. Alex seems to be already out with Dreamfinder and Figment while also keeping track of their belongings being stolen again by Hashama and Misushi. Her eyes are heavily closed from helping Dreamfinder recover all this time. She lays near Dreamfinder’s carpet motionless on her side. Her breathing is quiet, but deep, as it sucks in bits of the scent of sand through her nose. Her arms are closed together as a pillow support for her head. The only movement in her sleep she’s is a sudden twitch on her leg kicking a jar of water at her feet.

The necklace around Rachel’s glows a very light blue. The aura of Yuna brightens as she awakens and appears out of the necklace and into the musty light within the tent. She lengthens and widens in all directions as if stretching herself. Her yawns are made in a childlike high-pitch voice. Her feint-seen eyes that are covered by her aura wander the inside of the tent learning that it is entirely empty of anything except for Rachel’s sleeping presence.

The sprite taps itself onto Rachel’s head. Rachel squirms her head a little, but still sleeps. Then Yuna tries tickling Rachel in her weak spots like the armpits and the back of her knees. Though Rachel’s reaction is a tiny squirm and a tiny smile, it did not change the results of her waking up. She’s still asleep. Yuna starts to get pretty annoyed. Her colors slightly change into a purplely red violet as she shakes in midair. Yuna’s next strategy is to bounce rapidly and hard all over Rachel’s body. Swishes of sound fill in the tent like small fireworks streaming across the night sky. Rachel hears it but ignores it. She prefers to listen to whatever her dreams are over swishing noises outside. There is only one thing left Yuna can do. She spots the jar of water Rachel kicked and picks it up with only a small, but stick-thick string of her aura. There is still some water left in there. Yuna tips the jar over Rachel’s head and pours the water. The water splashes into Rachel’s hair, waking her up at last. Soaked, snorting, growling, tensing and red with infuriation, Rachel darts her flaming enraged eyes at Yuna seeing how the sprite is the only thing other than her [Rachel] is in the tent. Below her, Rachel finds the jar she had kicked by accident. She grabs the jar and charges at Yuna.

Outside, Dreamfinder and Figment are helping the clan stock up the new inventory when they hear a loud and angry scream coming from the camp. They quickly turn and see Rachel charging out of the tent at a terrific speed. What sounds like babbling from a distance, Dreamfinder was able to tell that Rachel is really mad at something. She must be swearing and badmouthing at someone. What is confusing, however, is how Rachel is swearing while running in zigzags and circles. It doesn’t look like this is some kind of directed assault, he thought, if it could be called that. It looks as if Rachel is chasing something like a madwoman. Indeed, Rachel is chasing something. As Rachel screams her head off while carrying the jar that splashed her, Yuna tries to escape from her fury. Scared like rabbits, she dodges through every obstacle that has come to her as she flies away quickly. With her speed and the sun’s light, it has become hard to see for most people to see the little sprite passing by, but that hasn’t stopped Rachel from pursuing.

As Rachel keeps running, the Dreamfinder and Figment continue watching her with confused looks. Neither one of them could tell what she is chasing, what she is mad about, or why. They stand where they are distracted by the unexpected action, what it could probably be called a hallucination, that has taken over that poor girl.

“What a strange girl she is.” Zahara says as she walks up between Dreamfinder and Figment. “It seems the heat has finally gotten control of her senses. This must be why we hardly have any female humans here.”

“Figment, could you please go see what’s wrong with her?” Dreamfinder asks kindly. “I’ll fetch her some water.”

“Okay-dokey, Dreamfinder!” Figment responds with a salute. The little flying purple dragon rushes over to Rachel at his average speed. It seems, however, that he might have to pick up the speed if he wants to catch up with her.

********************************************************************************************************

Waving the jar that splashed her in the tent, Rachel continues ranting and screaming at Yuna as she catches up to her. The sand picks up behind her feet into a multitude of small dust clouds. She begins to sweat through her clothes, but she didn’t care. Rachel is out for revenge big time! There is nothing, she thought, that can hold her back from catching Yuna.

“YOU PESKY LITTLE FLYING PEST!” Rachel screams into the open air. “I’M GONNA BAG YOU UP AND SQUASH YOUR ESSENCE INTO A JAM, MIX YOU INTO THE SAND AND CHOP YOU UP TO YOUR DEATH, SHAKE YOU UP IN A JAR AND DEEP FRY YOU IN BOILING OIL, AND THEN, I’M GONNA CHOP YOU UP ALL OVER AGAIN!”

“Calm yourself, Rachel!” Yuna shouts back as she continues rapidly flying away. “There is no reason to be feeling angry about this.”

“DON’T TELL ME WHETHER I AM FEELING ANGRY OR NOT! I’LL DECIDE FOR MYSELF IF I’M FEELING THAT WAY OR NOT! THE ONLY THING I AM FEELING HUNGRY FOR IS YOUR DEMISE! DIE, YUNA, DIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!”

“Rachel!” shouts a voice from behind.

Rachel turns her head behind her and finds Figment flying towards her from behind. His two tiny orange wings are flapping as hard as they can in his pursuit. The poor dragon is beginning to sweat through his scales, but he did not stop. Wherever Rachel has gotten this newfound energy to run through the desert sand, it’s out-speeding Figment’s.

“GET BACK HERE!” Rachel shouts back to Yuna with her jar in the air.

“Rachel, stop! Come back!” Figment calls out. “We have to…we have to…have to…to…” Figment’s wings have finally given out. He slowly sinks himself back onto the hot surface, panting heavily and sweating vigorously. “Whew! Come…back…gosh, it’s hot out here.”

“YUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Rachel ignores Figment’s calling and continues chasing Yuna. It seems like almost hours instead of minutes of pursuing Yuna. The heat of the desert sun is beginning to beat down into Rachel’s brain, making a mirage appear. In front of, a blurry vision of ‘Uncle Eli’, the man who had previously appeared in her dreams, starts running away from Rachel instead of Yuna. When Rachel sees this, she starts running faster than before. Her arms reach out to the mirage. She felt ready to scream out his name but wanted to save herself the embarrassment of doing so. Finally, she stops running and pants heavily. How could Uncle Eli possibly be out here in the middle of his God-forsaken desert, Rachel thought. He’s gone. He shouldn’t be here. Not after what happened long ago. What did happen long ago?

“Rachel!” Figment calls out. 

His breath and strength has been replenished and has finally caught up to Rachel alone holding the empty water jar. A slight breeze blows softly at Rachel’s side and gently through her hair. The blank and vacant expression look on her face is still with her eyebrows scrunching upward to her dreary agitation. Her legs stiffen, her eyes dilate without blinking, and her hands tremble to where she drops the jar on the sand. If only Rachel’s vision had become real.

“Rachel! Are you…are you okay?” Figment asks, as he huffs and puffs from flying so fast.

“Huh?”

“You were…screaming. You were screaming and running around in circles around the camp and waving that jar like your mind just snapped.”

“Huh? Oh! Y-yeah, I’m fine now. I got it all out of my system.” said Rachel.

“What were yelling about?”

“Someone…poured water over my head while I was still asleep.”

“That must have been funny.” Figment chuckles.

“It’s not, Figment! It’s REALLY irritating! Look, I don’t want to talk about this. Let’s just get back to Dreamfinder and the Dream Machine. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Hmm? Oh right, the jar! I got it.”

“That’s good, but I meant the photo picture you promised we’d all take together before we leave.”

“I forgot I said that. A picture says a lot more than just words. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

“I believe you. So what were you chasing?” Figment asks.

“Just skip it.” she answers. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“If you say so.”

So both Figment and Rachel walk back to the Dream Machine and the camp together, leaving the mirage behind. Rachel forgets chasing after Yuna after weirdly seeing the mirage. Of all times it had to appear, it had to be now. It’s as if a certain time is coming near for Rachel, but what? The water that had splashed her head earlier is beginning to dry up as well as merge with all the sweat she had just made. She starts getting dizzy and light-headed, but Rachel continues forth hoping not to get Figment worried and call for Dreamfinder, Zahara or Alex’s help. While it is also making her grow insane from Yuna’s mischievous doing, a good glass of water would help Rachel greatly.

As they arrive back to the Dream Machine, Dreamfinder comes out with a pitcher and glass of water in both hands and rushes over to them with Alex, holding a fan, and Zahara, with a towel, following behind him. He sees Rachel drenched in sweat from head to toe. He believes that the heat has done a huge number on her clothing at the very least and notices how dirty Rachel looks from the sand. Upon encountering her, the Dreamfinder hands the glass of water to Rachel. But Rachel puts aside the glass to Figment and takes the pitcher instead. Without hesitation, she chugs down most of the water down her throat, while the rest of it spills over onto her clothes. That chase for Yuna has truly made her thirsty.

“Rachel, what happened?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Let me put it this way, Dreamer.” Rachel gasps as she finishes drinking from the pitcher. “I had a nice splash of water when I woke up from my sleep.”

“So?”

“On my head.”

“Oh.”

“You mean someone splashed water on your head while you still sleeping?” Alex guesses.

“No, a clown came in and dunked a cream pie on my face. YES, someone splashed me!” Rachel yells with sass.

“You don’t have to be snappy.”

“I’m sorry. I just wish I had been woken up better, that’s all.”

“But who did it?” Zahara asks out loud.

“Alex?” Dreamfinder shot his eyes at him with strict suspicion.

“Not me, I’ve been here guarding our stuff from being stolen again all morning.”

“It can’t be me, Dreamfinder.” said Figment, fluttering his wings in the air at his side. “I’ve been helping you and Zahara stock up the Dream Machine the whole time.”

“Well, someone must have done it.” said Dreamfinder with concern. “I certainly wouldn’t do it either.”

“Guys, stop.” Rachel orders. “I know who it was that did it, but you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“Who?” Figment asks with an excited suspense building inside of him.

Sighing, she replies, “It was Yuna.”

“Not that again.” he groans.

“Look, say what you want but that’s what happened. Case closed! No offense, Zahara, but I can’t stand being here in the desert any longer. If I live one day here, I’m going to lose my mind. It may be my fried brain speaking out for itself, but that’s how it is with me right now.”

“It is alright, Rachel.” Zahara said, feeling the need to chuckle just a bit. “I do not blame you for feeling this way. Most of us here in the Deshandjah Desert tend to get a little edgy when we stay here for too long.” 

“I just want to go home right now. Anywhere in America or on Earth, even for just a minute!”

“We will, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder. “That will definitely be our next stop. Once we’re ready, our next stop will be the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus where Alex will be dropped off and finally begin his studies.”

“I think the word ‘finally’ sounds more than okay on my book.”

“That goes double for me.” said Alex. “I can’t wait to start! I’ll finally be a part of a school and learn about so many new technologies. And when I’m done, I’ll put them to great use to help better Iyra City.”

“That’s the spirit, Alex!” Figment cheered. “I have full confidence that you’ll do great!”

“You’re not going to play ‘cheerleader,’ are you, Figment?” Rachel asks with a raised eyebrow with queasiness.

“I was. Why? Were you going to get embarrassed?”

“No, I’m saying you shouldn’t so you wouldn’t start sweating so much again.”

“Oh! Well, thank you, Rachel! You’re so sweet!”

Figment, all of a sudden, presses kiss against Rachel’s cheek, making everyone, including Dreamfinder, blush. Hesitating, Rachel pulls herself away from the dragon and shouts, only to receive a handful of giggles from her friends.

“Dude! You’ve clearly lost it!” Rachel shouts, as she dries her face of Figment’s leftover spit. “But…thanks.”

“I try.” The dragon gleefully beams.

“Okay, so are we all set to go?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Your stocks are all filled with as much food, water and medicine as we were able to fit in.” Zahara said with assurance.

“I don’t know how to thank you and your clan for you kind hospitality in taking care of me and my friends.”

The pleasure is all mine, I assure you. You have all done so much for us. We are entirely and forever in your debts.”

“Hold on!” Figment interrupts. “We’re not forgetting about our picture-taking, are we?”

“Oh right!” Dreamfinder remembers. “Rachel?”

“I got it!” Rachel says, as she takes out her camera.

“I will go and gather the clan to come forth.” Zahara says with excitement.

Zahara runs back to the camp and calls for everyone to show up, including Misushi and Hashama. Meanwhile, everyone in Dreamfinder’s group stood and waited for Zahara to return. As Rachel gets her camera ready, she does not realize Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex whispering to each other behind her back.

“Are you trying to make me jealous, Figment?” Dreamfinder asks with a smirk on his face.

“What? What do you mean?” Figment replies casually.

“He’s talking about you smooching a kiss on Rachel.” said Alex with a chuckle.

“I kissed Rachel?”

“…Yeah. Just now. Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t think so. My mind’s pretty fried by now.”

“It’s been 30 seconds! How can you not remember?”

In an instant, Figment conjures up an x-ray screen to appear in front of his face with the power of his imagination. In the screen, a collection of eggs with legs are caught on fire from the intensive heat, screaming and running around all over the inside of his brain.

“Looks like your eggs are a little runny.” Alex jokes.

“I think they’re more like scrambling than runny, Alex.” Dreamfinder counters.

“I guess my brain has gone way over easy.” Figment then laughs. “Get it? Runny, scrambled or over easy?”

“You’re very droll, Figment. You know that?” Alex smirks.

“Who’s droll?” Rachel intervenes as she holds the well-prepared camera.

“Figment’s droll.”

“He’s not a troll, he’s a dragon.”

“Not troll, droll!”

“I’ve got to get you guys out of here.” Dreamfinder confirms.

“So I misheard you." said Rachel. "Where’s Zahara?”

“Here she comes!” Figment points out.

The group sees Zahara coming back towards them with a small band of the group along with Hashama and Misushi. The puffs of sand they kick up as they arrive are collecting into a dust cloud that blows from behind them and up to Dreamfinder and his crew. They notice Zahara is pursuing her small band to walk fast seeing as how she knows that her new friends don’t want to keep staying here in the Deshandjah Desert much longer. It seems only Zahara is the only person wearing a smile on her face compared to her group. The others seem to be either annoyed or suspicious of these strange travelers. Defeating the Abiteth, flying in the air with a mechanical machine, wearing strange clothing, and now wanting the “take a picture”? Much of this they could not make heads or tails of. Suppose they think that taking a photograph is some kind of hypnosis trap? Or perhaps a self-automatic thieving machine that could steal their goods in a split second with the push of a button? Whatever the intentions are, the clan is beginning to feel uneasy about it.

“I have brought them, my friends.” Zahara says happily.

“Awesome!” Rachel exclaims. “Let’s just gather in front of the Dream Machine and I’ll set it up.”

“samiet laha, daeuna nastaeidu lilsuwrat.” Zahara says in her own language to her group, saying “You heard her, let us prepare for the picture.”

“How about we have you two stand next to Figment and Dreamfinder. Alex, you stand next to Hashama and Misuhi. And Zahara, you stand in the middle between Dreamfinder and me. When I give the word, everyone smile!” Everyone gets into their positions as Rachel readies the camera setting a timer to take two snapshots, one for her and the other for Zahara and her group. The sweat dropping in front of her eyes and cheeks from the heat are making it harder for Rachel from focusing, but Rachel ignores it and clicks on the timer button. She runs back to the group and takes her position between Dreamfinder and Zahara, just in time before the timer runs out. “Everybody smile now!” Rachel signals aloud.

As they smile, the timer sets off and takes the photos. Relieved of the stressfulness of standing firm and perfect, the group realizes that having a picture taken was not what they had feared. It was rather pleasant and quick. Rachel runs back up to collect the camera. By the time she had gotten it, the camera had already printed out both copies of the photo that had taken. Once printed in gray, it has gradually changed into its true colors revealing the images the camera has taken. As soon as the ink in the photos have dried up, Rachel takes one of them and hands it to Zahara.

“Here you go, Zahara. One memory to last a lifetime.” Rachel says with a smile.

“Thank you, Rachel.” Zahara replies. “Thank you all. I shall never forget your kindness and your heroism. And I will cherish this picture until the end of my days.”

“Aw, it was nothing really.” Figment blushes. “It’s always fun to smile and make memories with friends.”

“Thank you for everything, Zahara.” Dreamfinder steps in. “If it weren’t for you, your clan and your hospitality, I would never exist anymore and my friends would have no way of getting home.”

“It was an honor to serve our heroes.” said Zahara. “It was the very least we could do. I still don’t know how else we could repay you for what you’ve done in defeating that monster.”

“Friends carry no debts, Zahara. And even if we did, I would say that you saving me after us taking care of the Abiteth for you would count as equal.”

“If that’s what you want it to be, then consider us equal.”

“Hey, aside from two of you guys stealing some of our stuff yesterday, you’re all pretty cool.” said Alex. “If you guys ever find yourself in Iyrilia, look me up and I’ll show you the city.”

“I would like that very much.” Zahara smiles.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand.” Rachel said.

“What’s that?”

“All four of us had been hit by the Abiteth’s goop when it shot at us in the air. A lot of it got on Dreamfinder and he got infected big time, but the rest of us didn’t. Why is that?”

“Most of this is easy to explain. For reptilian creatures such as Figment—no offense.”

“Non taken.” Figment said.

“For Figment, reptiles are known for their blood pressure to slow down when they are exposed to extreme cold. But since we are in a hot desert with the heat of the Sun beating down on us, the goop melts very quickly before the infection could take effect. Alex, seeing how he is a cat-like being, his case is pretty much that same as Figment only when he’s is exposed to the coldness so much, it would effect his health pretty drastically if not taken cared for well. And again, with the sun, the infection doesn’t set when the goop is already melted. You, however, are a very strange case. You have the same substance of skin as Dreamfinder does, and yet, you are still in good health. I don’t know how you were immune to the Abiteth’s mushy curse, but I’m glad you were. If all of you had been infected at the same time, it would have taken us even longer to cure you of the disease. I don’t know what to say about you, Rachel, considering the non-occurring effects after that battle, but let me just say how very lucky you are to have survived.”

“Well that explains most of my question.” said Rachel as she ponders over everything Zahara had described. “It’s one thing to speak your language without ever knowing it in the first place, but to dodge an infection like that without a scratch or a blob blotched onto me is a real mystery.”

“It is a puzzle.” said Dreamfinder. “But what’s important now is that everyone is okay and in good health. And I doubt our thanks for you and your treatment will meet their end.”

“So long as you continue your stay, it may be that way.” Zahara giggles.

“Then…I guess it’s time we go back to our own world.” said Figment solemnly. “We’ll miss you, Zahara.”

“And I’ll miss you all, too.”

Zahara hugs Dreamfinder first, then Dreamfinder signals his friends to join into a group hug. They try not to squeeze tightly or they would compact more heat inside them, as if the Sun boiling down on them were not enough to fry them. In fact, it lasted nearly twenty seconds! After those twenty seconds, they released each other. More sweat has been collected in their shirts than it had been after a very short, yet long time. Still, this is the last moment Dreamfinder and his friends are staying in the desert. And the sooner they leave, the better—not that having a new friend in this world was bad.

Everyone jumps onto the Dream Machine, fully stocked, hydrated and ready to go. The Dreamfinder takes his seat on the pilot’s chair with Figment sitting top of its chrome behind his friend, Rachel at Dreamfinder’s left and Alex at his right. As Dreamfinder starts up the Dream Machine with his dream-powered imagination, they all have their farewells to their desert friends. Zahara and her clan wave back from below on the sandy surface. They wonder if Dreamfinder and the others would ever return to the desert for a visit on day. Considering, however, Rachel’s behavior with the heat, Dreamfinder’s near fateful demise from the Abiteth’s goop, and Alex’s relationship towards Hashama and Misushi, it’s likely that they won’t.

The Dream Machine floats higher and higher into the blue sky until everyone in the desert begins to look like little ants. There is one thing that only Rachel is able to see. From behind the Dream Machine, she sees a tiny speck of light coming up at them. Rachel leaves Dreamfinder’s side and the others unnoticed and heads towards the rear end of the airship. The two of them, both Rachel and Yuna, greet each other as they come upon the metal railing that divides them from a floor and a sky. Yuna swoops up over the rail and finds Rachel wearing a disappointed look. Rachel’s eyebrows are scrunched down, her arms are crossed and her back tall in perfect posture. The frown on her face is enough to make a five-year-old child cringe. But Yuna does not take effect of Rachel’s expression. She just floated there casually like nothing has happened, teasing Rachel’s eyes as her form slightly bounces and sways from let to right and right to left, back and forth. The light from the sprite is glaring into Rachel’s eyes long enough to blind her a little. Someone has to break the silence sooner or later in order to cease the constant staring.

“That wasn’t very nice, Yuna.” Rachel said first.

“You overslept.” said Yuna with a firm, yet calm tone.

“A simple nudge on my shoulder, or perhaps a whisper in my ear, would have worked enough for me. Or maybe a candlelight right against my face.”

“I nudged and tapped onto your whole right side many times, the whispering in your ear would have looked discomforting enough to being weird and it was too bright in the tent to hold a candlelight at you anyway. All of this and you still didn’t wake up.”

“So splashing me was your best solution?”

“It was all I could think of. I felt I was in a hurry to wake you up since Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex were already packing everything up and getting the Dream Machine ready. You were likely to get left behind.”

“Okay, first of all,” Rachel scoffs, “Dreamfinder and Figment would never leave me behind. They know they’re responsible for my safety. I’ve seen it all come into effect since we first met. And second, I’ve disciplined myself to waking up as early as 6:30 in the morning since first grade all the through high school and college. I overslept this time because I was tired! I got tired from running away from a giant spider-crab-squid monster, getting beat down from head to toe from the heat, and helping Zahara getting Dreamfinder better so we could all get out of here. All of this happened in a matter of what it has likely been a month and an extra four days! Who could really blame me for sleeping in after all that? At least this time?”

“Hmm…you’ve made your point, Rachel.” Yuna replies. “I apologize for my actions.”

“Apology accepted. Wait. ‘Actions’ as in spelled in plural? What else did you do while I was asleep?”

“If you must know, it most likely has to do with me watching you almost kiss Dreamfinder in his sleep.”

“Spying.”

“More or less.”

“No, exactly! It’s exactly what it was.”

“You’re right, it was. I apologize for that, too.”

“I’ll forgive you if you promise not to tell anyone else about this.” Rachel whispers. “How that happened and why it happened?”

“Why did it happen?” Yuna asks.

“Gee, Yuna, I thought you know me well. That is what you’ve told me earlier, isn’t it?”

“You seem to be on fire today with the comebacks, Rachel. That’s very impressive.”

“Please don’t get me started on ‘fire’, Yuna. I’ve been baked, boiled and fried more than enough to last me five summer vacations already.”

“Very well. Now if you will be so kind, I shall take leave and retreat into your necklace again, if that’s alright.”

“Yeah sure, go ahead. All’s forgiven. Water under the bridge and whatever.” Rachel sighs as she leans onto the railing. At this rate, she could care less about what Yuna does anymore. “I mean you’re still staying, right? After all the yelling and chasing I’ve done to you just now?”

“Like you said, ‘all is forgiven.’ ” Yuna quotes. She then takes her refuge into Rachel’s blue necklace once more, leaving Rachel behind with a glowing blue aura radiating from the gemstone.

Rachel then returns to Dreamfinder just in time for him to imagine another portal out of this desert. She sees Figment clutching his claw-like hands onto Dreamfinder’s shoulders, wrinkling his blue jacket. Alex is standing next to Dreamfinder with his eyes looking straightforward, beaming with excitement as he imagines his future in learning and learning in an actual college outside of his own home world. His feet are firmly planted onto the wooden floor and his hands are in fists with anticipation. He could not wait to attend the college Dreamfinder had studied in and fulfill his dream.

“Is everybody ready?” Dreamfinder asks as he cracks his fingers outward.

“Please, God!” Rachel exclaims.

“We’re ready, Dreamfinder!” Figment cheers.

“Let’s go!” Alex shouts.

“Hold on tight everyone!” Dreamfinder said. “This may get a little bumpy.”

With his imagination, the Dreamfinder unleashes his dream power and creates a new portal that will lead them back home to Earth. The portal forms once again into a dark-colored tunnel with tiny blue-turquoise stars circling about around its inner walls. The deeper they look into the portal, the darker it is. But Dreamfinder does not show fear, not like he had once feared in the past. And neither should the others. His courage has allowed him to pushed and pull the levers forward and back into his desired positions followed by a clickety-click sound from each lever, locking them tight. The Dream Machine pushes forward into the dark, yet faintly luminous tunnel, where they entirely become engulfed into its wondrous, unnatural abstract structure, if it could be called a “structure.” The Dream Machine, along with Dreamfinder, Rachel, Figment and Alex Wavers, disappears entirely from the sights of the desert people below as they witness the “second” most extraordinary phenomenon that has happened in their existence; Abiteth’s death ranking at the very top.

********************************************************************************************************

The airship races through the dark gateway like a speeding rabbit in a dog’s racetrack. The excitement of those sparks of imagination shooting, swirling and spiraling in the atmosphere speedily passing by as the four adventurers soar through the emanate presentation of them traveling through time and space, which has not come out as a new thing for either Figment or Dreamfinder, or more recently, Rachel and Alex. The stars shoot past the Dream Machine like comets in space. It may as well just be outer space, only without the intense freezing cold weather and the lack of oxygen. Such a sight like this is spectacular enough to witness. What anyone would give to see something like this. It’s something Dreamfinder and everyone else are all more than lucky enough to see it all for themselves and enjoy it. However, Rachel is perhaps the only person in the group questioning in mind about the possibilities of this intense moment. Despite this, she allows herself to enjoy everything she is seeing, everything that she may be seeing for the rest of her life, if possible.

Finally, a speck of light appears in the darkness. All bright and light blue it depicts itself as an endless blue sky with white fluffy clouds scattered across it. Dreamfinder pulls both of the levers far back towards him and speeds the Dream Machine at its maximum. The pressure from the incoming air has everyone being pushed back by and inch or two. They all reach for the railings and hang on for dear life. As they get closer to the end of the portal, the pressure increases its intensity. Figment’s hand slips off of Dreamfinder’s jacket and flies off backwards screaming. But Rachel grabs onto Figment just in time. She tightly holds the little purple dragon safely in her arms. But with Figment tucked away, it takes out one arm for Rachel to hold onto the railing to support herself and Figment. She screams out for Dreamfinder to help, but the pressure of speeding through space has him locked onto his seat. Alex, however, steps in, grabs onto Rachel and Figment, and, with all of his might, pulls them both behind the Dreamfinder’s seat with all of their arms locked around the bars that supported the chair and the glass lamp dome that stands about their sitting host.

With one last attempt, Dreamfinder pushes his arms out and barely grabs onto the levers. As soon as his hands are firmly in his grip, he un-clicks the lock and, with great force from the increasing pressure, pulls the levers back to his chest. The Dream Machine tips its nose up just slightly enough for it to pass through the exit first without crashing through it. At this time, Dreamfinder growls at this exhausting strain. What makes it harder for him to bear is the fact that he had just recovered from Abiteth’s disease, but not enough strength for himself to completely recover in full health. 

The dirigible finally passes through the exit of the tunnel that screens the image of the next world: Earth, with its luscious green palm trees standing below and the blue sky far and high above them. After all this time, the Dreamfinder and his friends finally return to their own home world, but only for a short while. As the Dream Machine exits the portal, the throbbing air softens to a stillness relieving everyone onboard to the point of falling to their knees. As the Dream Machine gently floats above the surface of the trees like a cloud, the only sounds in the air that are being heard are the deep and heavy breaths coming out from everybody. Dreamfinder takes a stand on his two feet and searches behind his chair. He finds Rachel holding onto Figment still with Alex huddling the two of them together. Much to his relief, the Dreamfinder returns to his seat and starting manning the controls again. He the distance below, he finds a small clearing surrounded by a vast forest of palm trees and bushes. The Dreamfinder gently shifts the levers to push forward slowly and land safely into that clearing.

The Dream Machine hovers over the green grass below them until they softly touch the surface at last, officially ending their trip back into the real world, Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel’s real world, at least, from their journey into imagination.

“Ah, finally!” Rachel exclaims with great delight. She jumps off the Dream Machine and falls onto her back against the grass, snow-angeling and clutching her fingers in it saying, “Solid green ground!”

“So this is Earth, is it?” Alex asks in awe. “Looks pretty primitive.”

“It’s not all just trees and bushes.” Figment says excitedly. “You won’t BELIEVE what else is out there in this world! There are cities and towns and streets and automobiles and people of all kinds and animals of all kinds…there is so much out there aside from this green place. A lot more than just what you would see in books.”

“Hey! Less excitement, more calmness.” Rachel orders. “I’ve had enough of overdosing excitement for a while.”

“I just can’t believe we’re back already.” said Dreamfinder. “I hope we weren’t gone too long again.”

“I’m sure we’re not, Dreamfinder.” said Figment with assurance for his friend. “We’ve only been gone for a short while. I’m sure nothing has changed much.”

“I do hope you’re right, Figment, my friend. I was just beginning to settle for what modern time has brought us both.” Dreamfinder then turns around and calls out to Rachel with a slight chuckle. “Rachel, are you planning to lie down there all day?”

“It that’s how long it will take for me to readjust myself back to reality again for a short period, then yes.” Rachel smiles.

Taking a little delight in Rachel’s enthusiasm upon their return, Dreamfinder walks off a couple of steps away from them and the Dream Machine for a bit. His blue eyes search hard through the leaves of the bushes and palm and plain trees surrounding them. The whole place looks more like a jungle than a forest of trees here. It would be hard for one to find his way in and out of it safely without getting into trouble. Knowing Dreamfinder, he has made himself more than capable of looking beyond what he sees ahead of him, and it’s not just his imagination. Up ahead, he sees a small opening through the trees. On the other side is only a small blur of blue and a substance of what looks like glass…a lot of glass. Now the pieces are starting to come together. Realizing what the image is up ahead, Dreamfinder lets out a big smile and runs back to his friends.

“Everyone!” Dreamfinder shouts due to his excitement. “Follow me! I think I know where we are! Come on!” He runs back off into the green surroundings through the bushes and past the trees with his friends about to follow behind him.

“Wha-? Hey, Dreamfinder! Wait up!” Alex shouts.

“Dreamer!” Rachel shouts also.

“Ha ha! Leave it to Dreamfinder to get excited at a discovery.” Figment laughs. “No, wait. That’s me, too!”

“What about the Dream Machine?”

“We’ll come back for it later!” Dreamfinder cries from advance. “Hurry!”

Everyone starts running off after Dreamfinder, leaving the Dream Machine alone and unattended. Dreamfinder is already far up in front of everybody with Alex second, Figment third, and Rachel far behind them in last. If this had been a real race, Rachel would have counted herself out in an instant.

“Guys! Slow down!” Rachel screams from behind. “I’m not as fast as you all are!”

Ignoring Rachel’s outcries, the boys are running through the green forest, pushing aside every bush that comes in their way and past every tree without crashing themselves into them. Finally, as Dreamfinder pushes the away the branches of a large bush on both sides, his eyes widen with astonishment, along with Figment and Alex who are just joining. Rachel, of course, comes up last heavily breathing mercilessly. She slowly walks up and leans onto Alex with her shaking knees and legs. As her breaths begin to soften, she lifts her head and finds the image in front of everyone that is exciting them inside.

Before them is a large building consisting of two giant pyramids of glass encompassed while modern-style structures and a wall with golden gates open for entry. In front of that gate is a water fountain that, no, doesn’t have water falling down and front, but falling up and backwards! The trees in this area are finely trimmed and the grass inside is mowed to an even cut. The reflection of the Sun onto the glass pyramids resembles a rainbow like a palette of pigmented pastes ready to be radiating after a light and swift brushing across a blank canvas. The people that are entering and exiting that building look an awful deal like young college adults in gray uniform. Well enough, Dreamfinder believed what this place is. And much to his delight with his heart in full dynamism, he was right all along.

“This is it.” Dreamfinder gasps. “This is where we need to be…”

 

…The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus!


	30. Chapter 30

“Wait. This is it?” Rachel asks, squeamishly.

“You bet it is!” Dreamfinder exclaims excitedly. “This is the university Figment and I have been telling you about!”

“Oh, my God. No.”

“Wowie-wow-wow! It looks even better than I remember.” Figment shouts happily.

“The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus…” Alex gasps. “It’s incredible! It’s looks beyond anything I expected it to be!”

“That’s because the last time we were here, we had just filled and reenergized the school with dream power.” Dreamfinder said. “Now the academy is at its true glory!”

“Are you sure this is the place?” Rachel asks, as if she’s trying to stall her friends for some reason. “ ‘Cause now that I think about it, I think there’s one in…uh…Cambridge! Yeah, Cambridge! Oh, or even better: Seattle! I mean, look at that big needle they got over there, right? Or what about the location in London you mentioned earlier? Let’s go there! I love London!”

“Rachel,” Dreamfinder chuckles, “this is the place we were meant to come to, the London location moved here to Florida, and we just got here!”

“Come on! What are we waiting for?” Figment cheers. “Let’s go!”

Figment flies off ahead of the others towards the academy in a frenzy with his two tiny wings fluttering and carrying him as fast as they can go. His excitement in returning to the academy where his first adventure with Dreamfinder into the modern world, our modern world, had previously taken place. Alex and Dreamfinder’s nerves are beginning to build up to the point of bursting. They cannot wait another moment longer to arrive at their destination.

“Let’s go, Alex!” Dreamfinder says, as he jumps out of the bushes to follow his purple friend.

“This rules!” Alex shouts. He jumps out of the bush with Dreamfinder, leaving Rachel behind alone.

“Come on, Rachel!”

“You guys go on ahead!” Rachel shouts from behind the bushes. “I’ll just stay here and watch the Dream Machine until you get back.”

“No way!” Dreamfinder shouts back, turning around and runs back to Rachel. “You’ll miss out on all the incredible things they have in there.”

“You mean all the other stuff we just did together was not incredible enough?”

“Rachel!”

“Look, Dreamfinder. For some reason, I don’t feel comfortable going in there. It’s like…like…”

“Yes?”

Rachel couldn’t say another word. Not yet. Her mind is buzzing with ideas on what to tell Dreamfinder. She has her reasons not to go, but how can she tell him that knowing he will just take her along anyway? She knows that will happen. But how to tell him without making him worry is the problem. And who could ever ruin such a face as Dreamfinder’s that is beaming with excitement, eagerness and sunshine all wrapped up into one huge smile. It’s smiles like those that make Rachel blush. And when she blushes, there’s no way out of it, and that will only leave her completely exposed. It’s like she is holding back on something, something she does not want to ruin the moment for Dreamfinder, her only kind friend who has taken her best interests, whatever they are, at heart. She has to say something.

“…It’s like…going to a new school with no knowledge of what’s here or there and…what’s to know.” Rachel answers. “I mean I may be smart for college, but not enough for universities like this. Granted that I’ve never heard of universities like this one before.”

“So you’re afraid that you showing up there will make you feel like some ‘new student’ who doesn’t know what to do there?” Dreamfinder guesses.

“…Yeah, let’s go with that.”

“Oh, Rachel.” Dreamfinder takes Rachel’s hands to his heart and continues. “First of all, I know you’re smart. I’ve seen it all throughout every one of our adventures together. It was your intelligence that’s helped us get out of a lot of trouble and I definitely thank you for all of that. And second, other than the fact that the London location is now here in Florida, this is the university I graduated from! I became a professor and inventor under the college’s name and, in London, I began my journey into imagination with Figment using the Mesmonic Converter contraption I invented. Without all that and Figment, I would have never realized my true purpose in becoming the Dreamfinder. And you and I would never have met.”

“Dreamfinder—”

“Rachel…this academy has played a major role in my life and I want to show it to you. Please?”

That did it. The look that Rachel sees in Dreamfinder is too much for her to back away from. She takes a look at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus once more. For some reason, the imagery of the two giant glass pyramids at its best is making her uneasy, as beautiful as it looks. Especially when one sees a rainbow run right through it. It doesn’t look like a bad place, but why think of it that way. Rachel takes another look back at Dreamfinder. She can see his big blue dilating eyes pleading her to answer “yes.” It’s almost enough for Rachel to cry a little, at the very least shed a tear. She looks down at her hands, enveloped and warmed up by Dreamfinder’s white-gloved ones. Although she does not realize why it was necessary for him to take them into his own, she can see how badly he wants to show her a piece of his life. How can she say “no” to that? Rachel gently squeezes Dreamfinder’s hand tighter and responds to his plea.

“Okay.” Rachel whispers in a shy tone.

“Okay!” Dreamfinder repeats with glee. “Shall we?”

“If we must.” she sighs.

“Great! I can’t wait to show you!”

Dreamfinder grabs onto Rachel’s wrist and pulls her with him in an instant sprint towards the college. This sudden action has made Rachel’s back hunch over and crack a little on her lower spine like she was snapped like a twig. Her eyes widen with the anticipation she is being dragged into out of Dreamfinder’s excitement. She now sees how much this place means to him, especially with the fact that Dreamfinder and Figment have traveled a hundred years across time into the 21st century. The Scientifica-Lucidus is like a second home to the duo. To Dreamfinder, it was the place where he began his career as an inventor turned Dreamfinder. To Figment, in London at least, the academy was his birthplace. And now Alex Wavers is about to be given his chance to follow his new mentor’s footsteps and shape his own image learning in the academy. It’s a wonder why Rachel is not so excited about going there.

Fast across the grass, Dreamfinder and Rachel catch up to Figment and Alex to the entrance of the academy. They pass a couple of students walking by as they enter through the main doors and into the glass pyramids. Inside, Both Rachel and Alex’s jaws drop in awe at the sight of a large golden statue towering high above them. What’s even more shocking is what the statue is of. The distinctions in this statue are very similar to some very familiar people. The large of the two people has a shorter beard, smaller mustache, and a top hat. The smaller one looks exactly like Figment as it crawls around the larger one’s shoulders with crocodile snout smiling big.

“Huh. You look good in gold.” Rachel says to Dreamfinder and Figment.

“Whoa! You guys have your own statue?” Alex asks in shock.

“Yep!” Figment answers with pride. “After we defeated the Articulate Army that nearly took over London here on Earth, the academy made a giant statue in memory of us.”

“Except back then, I hadn’t fully grown out my beard yet.” Dreamfinder chuckles as he strokes his ginger-brown beard.

“I think you look better with a shorter beard, actually.” Rachel smirks.

“Hey!”

“What? I’m kidding! You look good either way.”

“Thank you.”

“So this is what the inside looks like?” Alex says. “I’m so excited! Where do we start?”

“Whoa-whoa! Easy, Alex! We have to see Chairman Auckley and settle things with him before he can enroll you.”

“Aww! Okay. If it will get me in.”

Suddenly, a bursts of outcries from some of the students fill the entrance hall shouting “Hey everyone! Dreamfinder and Figment are back!” With no hesitation an army of Scientifica-Lucidus students swarm out from behind walls, down the glass-walled stairs and out of classroom doors like bees coming out of a hive. Behind and at their sides, a swarm of strange creatures of mixed familiar animal varieties come crawling, running and/or flying with them. One is a giant flying blue turtle with a green shell, another a purple dolphin with a couple pink stripes, a blue long-haired tail, and large wings spanning a length of an average man’s arm, and a yellow canary colored lion-bodied, horse-headed being with bird wings. And those are only three out of hundreds more that are roaming around the Academy! They gather around the statue in a large crowd heading straight for their supposed heroes cheering and shouting their names in praise.

“Whoa! Here comes your fan club!” Rachel remarks.

“Wow! Were we gone for that long again?” Figment exclaims.

“Probably not, Figment.” said Dreamfinder. “I recognize a few faces here. I can imagine us being gone for at least a month or two.”

“Whoa! Look at them all!” Alex shouts with excitement.

“Those weird creatures with them…are they imaginary friends, too?!” Rachel asks loudly.

“Yep! Every one of them!” says Figment. “Which means more and more imaginary friends for me to play with!”

“Hey, where are the animal students?” Alex asks. “Aren’t there any anthro-animals attending here like Iyrilia?”

“Uh…no, Alex.” said Dreamfinder. “There aren’t. All of the intelligent life here on Earth are more or less humans. With one exception, of course.”

“Dreamfinder! Figment!” shouts a voice out of nowhere.

The distinct shouting of Dreamfinder and Figment’s names had come from up from the stairway to the second floor. The person who had shouted is a very peculiar looking person at fact. His skin is as blue as the glass in the academy that is reflected by the blue sky above. His ears are pointed upward like arrows. His head is mostly bald with the exception of a small clump of long white hair stripped down to the left side of his cheek. He is well dressed in a light blue shade that you’d see on a Crayola colored pencil with a much bluer dress vest inside the jacket and an orange bow to contrast it. The pants he wears that match the jacket are not stretching all the way down to his ankles, which reveals the large and bare blue feet he has. His wrinkled face makes the strange person look grim and, perhaps, melancholy, but the smile he has on his face shows a sign to the four guests and the students how friendly he can be.

“Welcome back!” shout the mysterious person.

“Fye!” Figment calls out. He flies up to Fye above the crowd of students as Fye pursues to make it down the stairs to greet his old friends. The purple dragon gives a big hug to his blue friend and says, “Long time, no see, ol’ buddy!”

“Likewise, Figment my friend. Likewise.” says the mysterious person, whose name is Fye.

The students scoot back towards the short glass walls of the staircase, letting Fye and Figment pass through. As they continue down the stairs, each student they pass by gives Figment a friendly pat in the back, resulting to Figment returning to them a series of giggles and chuckles. He then flies over the crowd and back to Dreamfinder, Rachel and Alex, particularly to Dreamfinder’s side. Then Fye finally steps off the staircase and walks up to Dreamfinder and his group, awaiting the oh-so-friendly greeting they have always shared since Dreamfinder and Figment’s first appearance into the 21st century.

“Dreamfinder!” Fye speaks.

“Oh Fye, my old friend!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “It’s so good to see you again!”

“It’s always good of you to come back to the Academy. How goes your journeys through imagination?”

“More incredible with each world we come across.” Dreamfinder then turns to Rachel and Alex and says, “Rachel, Alex, I’d like to introduce to you a very dear friend of Figment’s and mine: Fye.”

“So, this is the 'Famous Fye' Dreamfinder has been telling me about?” said Rachel with enthusiasm. “Are you really a sprite?”

“I am, indeed, Ms. Rachel.” said Fye with a giggle. “I’ve come from a distant world that Dreamfinder had conjured up with his imagination a long time ago and returned to Earth with them in time to saving the world from total chaos. After Dreamfinder and Figment had disappeared, I took residence in the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and became a professor as soon as the school had moved form London to the United States.”

“Nice! But, that was over a hundred years ago and you’re still here. How old do sprites live up to anyway?”

“A very long time. Unlike humans, we sprites have a slower aging process that allows us to live for many centuries. But alas, I am the only sprite living here on Earth.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be! I’m very happy with my life here. What I was unable to do at my old Sound Acreage home, I do here now.”

“That’s right!” Rachel exclaims. “Dreamfinder has told me earlier about how your wings wouldn’t let make objects like the other sprites do. Do you still have your wings?”

“Yes, I do.” said Fye. “But I haven’t flown with then in a long time. My apparent old age has been preventing me from doing this again. Plus, it hides them from any suspicious people believing I’m some sort of alien, which I might as well be.”

“I wouldn’t think you’re an alien, Fye. Different, maybe, but not an alien.”

“You are kind, Ms. Rachel, thank you. And who is this young lad here?”

“This is Alex Wavers, Fye.” Dreamfinder says. “We’ve brought him here from another world of imagination in hopes that we can get him enrolled here in the Academy.”

“Really? That sounds wonderful!” Fye extends his hand out to shake Alex’s and says, “Pleased to meet you, Alex.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Fye.” Alex Wavers, returning the handshake. “I hope get accepted here into the Academy and learn whatever there is about science and engineering.”

“And why is that, young Alex?”

“Ever since I was a young Katkin (that’s the name of my species), my brother and I wanted to make our home a better place for our people to live in. In the past, our city has been in a horrible dictatorship by one of our governors. That is, up until Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel all showed up and helped us take our city back to its former glory. My brother and I both dreamed of going to school together once the mayhem in our city had finally passed. Unfortunately, he died trying to save us from whatever disaster we were going to have. Being accepted here will mean a lot to me because I’m not just doing it for me, I’m doing it for my brother, too. I want to help my home become a better place while also honoring my brother’s memory.”

“That’s very noble of you, Alex.” said Fye. “From one foreign entity to another, I would personally love to have you attend our Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, but…”

“You can’t?”

“It’s not up to me to decide who gets to attend here or not. That is up to Chairman Auckley to decide. I can show you all to his office, if you like. And perhaps maybe give you a tour of the Academy.”

“That would be awesome! Let’s go!”

“Wonderful! Right this way. Figment, Dreamfinder, would you two like to join us?”

“Yippee!” Figment cheers.

“Of course, Fye.” said Dreamfinder, happily. “How about it Rachel?”

“…” Rachel says nothing. Her eyes stare up towards the second floor with the rest of her face as blank and pale as a white sheet of paper. At this rate, not even a fold or a crease could draw her attention back. Still, the sound of Dreamfinder’s voice is enough to get her back.

“Rachel?”

“Huh? Oh yeah! Sure. Let’s go.” Rachel mumbles.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! Lead the way, Fye.”

“With pleasure, Ms. Rachel. Follow me.”

Ignoring the cries and confused mumblings of the super cheerful students crowding around them, Dreamfinder and his group begin following their old friend, mostly “old friend” in the case of Dreamfinder and Figment knowing the old sprite longer, towards Chairman Auckley’s office. Around them, the whole academy looks like they have entered an ocean of blue everywhere around them. The coronal light reflecting through the windows illuminate the academy, casting shadows behinds the inner walls of the interior facing it. For any new student starting here at the Academy, the entire campus would seem like a maze seeing as how it would be hard to get around. For Dreamfinder and Figment, visiting the new Florida location only since the last time they were there would still be new for them. For one, it’s not as familiar to them as the location in London was. And second, staying there for only two or three days, added with the events of the Doubtfinder’s almost-certain takeover, has not been enough for them to memorize the locations of which and what classes are being taught there. Thankfully, with Fye still in the role as a professor after all these years their tour of the new Academy won’t seem as hard to get around as it could.

Alex’s eyes grow big at the sight of everything Fye shows him. The grin on his face grows wider with each classroom they pass by, many of them teaching basic technology, biology, astro physics, the whole works of advanced technology! Most of which even Dreamfinder finds incredibly finds hard to believe. The young Katkin then feels a sudden urge to race away from the group and squeal at every room ahead of them. His legs shake and bend vigorously, ready to jump at every moment he gets when he sees a new incredible spectacle. He may as well be put on a leash.

Rachel, on the other hand, is still feeling a little queasy about the surrounding area of the Academy. Though the atmosphere of it may look very warm and welcoming with its bright students and intelligent staff coming together, there is something off that, apparently, only Rachel can feel. The nerves inside her arms quiver with a growing fear building up inside. Her only comforts are watching Figment dancing and fluttering in the air to his excitement and standing close to Dreamfinder. She nearly jumps at a random moment and feels tempted to cling onto Dreamfinder’s arms. Now Rachel begins to sweat through her forehead. It might be from the Florida heat and humidity. Or is it?

“Are you okay, Rachel?” Dreamfinder asks with a concerned tone in his voice.

“Huh? Oh yeah, why?” Rachel asks back in a feint tone.

“You’re sweating a little.”

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“It…must be the air. I’ve been in Florida before, actually. I’ve just forgotten how hot and humid it is here.”

“Rachel, it’s air-conditioned in here.” Dreamfinder points out.

“Really? I hardly noticed.” Rachel said, as she sweats far worse than before.

“Rach…I don’t believe you.”

“Dreamer!”

“Rachel, I think you’d better stay close to me for a little while. I am responsible for your well being.”

“I…alright, fine.” she sighs with defeat.

Dreamfinder wraps an arm around Rachel’s shoulder and gently pulls her to his side with a gently, but firmly grasped hand. He is determined not to let Rachel fall so long the heat doesn’t make her faint. Despite this, Rachel’s cheeks begin to blush. Her eyes dilate a little at they dart left and right quickly. At least Figment, Fye and Alex are not noticing this happening, but the embarrassment is building up with all the students glaring at them as they pass by. It wouldn’t be so embarrassing if the Dreamfinder wasn’t Dreamfinder. Dreamfinder the inspiration of generations of Academy Scientifica-Lucidus students, Dreamfinder the Savior of London, Dreamfinder the Emancipator of Imagination, and so forth. Because of Figment and Dreamfinder’s heroic deeds that took place in 1910 and in their recent events in dealing with the Doubtfinder, their fame and legacy has been implanted in the Academy’s history, which means that all of the students who easily recognize their two heroes can imagine that with Rachel at his side, Dreamfinder may just as well have a new girlfriend.

“Uh, Dreamfinder?”

“Yes, Rachel?” Dreamfinder replies.

“I think the students are staring at us.” Rachel points out.

“Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they’re getting the idea of us being a couple.”

Dreamfinder looks about the surroundings and sees what Rachel sees. All the students coming towards them are beginning to show blushing cheeks and giggles of mushy bashfulness. His mind clicks onto the discomfort Rachel must be feeling.

“I get what you mean, Rachel,” Dreamfinder grunts at her side, “but I don’t—”

“Look, Dreamfinder! Thanks loads, but I’m fine! Really! I can walk.” Rachel removes herself from her host’s side and speed walks ahead.

Upon reaching the corner to catch up with the others, a young girl runs up and accidentally bumps into Rachel, landing them both to their behinds with a thud. Like all of the students, this girl is dressed in the mandatory uniform of a ladies gray suit and skirt, white socks and skirt, black shoes, and a red tie. The strange thing about this girl is she looks a lot younger compared to the rest of the students. Behind her is a strange orange tabby cat-like creature with two tiny bat-dragon-like wings, green eyes and a feathery finned tail. It flies to the girl at the moment of the collision and flutters its wings at her side.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” Rachel says.

“Ow! Yeah, I’m fine.” said the little girl as she is being brought up to her feet by her friend.

“Bumpity bay, glad you’re okay!” the little cat-dragon rhymed to his relief.

“I am so sorry!” said Rachel with guilt. “I didn’t realize you were behind the corner.”

“It’s alright. I’m still trying to get used to this place myself.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Yay, two! Count me in, too!” the cat-dragon exclaims.

“Whoa! What the heck is that?”

“This is Spark.” the girl says. “He’s my imaginary friend.”

“Whoop-dee-do! Pleased to meet you!” the cat dragon speaks.

“Rachel, are you okay?”

Hearing the thud, Dreamfinder turns the corner and comes rushing behind Rachel. His forelegs coming up against her back with his feet stomping loudly as he ran. Rachel is still sitting down from the crash. From her head down to her bottom, she is about as tall as Dreamfinder’s legs. He crouches down behind Rachel, grabs onto her arms and lifts them to her feet.

“Thanks, Dreamer. I’m fine.” said Rachel.

“Good, I hate to see you or anyone get hurt..” said Dreamfinder with relief.

“Ah! Uncle Dreamfinder!” the girl shouts.

“Oh, Capri! Spark! Hello!”

“You’re back! You’re back! You’re back! You’re back! You’re back!”

The girl, whose name is Capri, swiftly rushes past Rachel with her arms spread out wide and hugs Dreamfinder tightly. Dreamfinder, returning the hug, chuckles loudly as he feels this happy embrace coming from Capri. Rachel, who has taken this by surprise, continues standing there confused at this event. Especially when she sees Dreamfinder kiss the girl on the cheek. Other than the golden statue up front, the assumption of the students at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus seeing both Dreamfinder and Figment as their heroes are becoming far more and more likely.

“Oh, Capri! It’s so good to see you again!” Dreamfinder exclaims.

“I missed you so much, Uncle Dreamfinder!” Capri shouts.

“Uncle Dreamfinder?!” Rachel shouts.

“Uh…who’s your girlfriend here?”

"Girlfriend?"

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Dreamfinder bounces back. “Capri, this is Rachel, our new traveling companion. Rachel, this is Capri, my niece.”

“Your NIECE!” Rachel exclaims with shock.

“Well, technically I’m his great-great-great grandniece.” Capri points out.

“Wha—?”

“Yes, Rachel. Remember, I told you I came from the early twentieth century.” Dreamfinder reminded.

“Twentieth…oh right! Born in ninetieth, left at twentieth.”

“Dreamfinder? Where are you?” Figment calls out.

Figment comes flying around the corner with Alex and Fye running behind him. He, too, turns around the corner but doesn’t bump into Dreamfinder or Rachel. His big yellow eyes widen with great excitement at the sight of Capri and Spark standing with Dreamfinder and Rachel he has his tiny orange wings flap vigorously, making him speed between the inner gap of his friends’ group circle. Fye, trying to keep up, begins panting heavily due to his old age. His ankles start shaking over his large blue feet and he’s having a hard time firmly placing the bottom end of his cane to support his aging body. Alex, on the other hand, while trying to keep himself by Fye’s side, makes for a small sprint toward Dreamfinder and Rachel with Figment.

The Katkin’s eyes suddenly turn towards Capri’s direction. Her glowing Caucasian and reddish pink-freckled face beaming in the sunlight with her long and braided ginger hair hanging down in pigtail form, along with her smile and white teeth brightened and glistening like a glacier in the Arctic. Alex also notices how green Capri’s eyes are like the lush jungle leaves that naturally grow outside of Iyrilia. He couldn’t make out what the deal is with the weird flying orange “Katkin” at her side, but his full on focus had gone straight towards Dreamfinder’s niece.

“Figment!” Capri cheers, as she gives Figment a big hug like with her uncle.

“Capri!” Figment exclaims. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing awesome, Figment! I missed you!”

“I missed you, too! Hey Spark!”

“Howdy-doo! Great to see you!” said Spark with his big Cheshire Cat grin.

“Uh…hi.” Alex greets Capri with a blushing forming in his cheeks underneath his glowing yellow fur with a little smirk of embarrassment. “I’m…I’m Alex Wavers.”

“Whoa, cool!” Capri shouts in awe. “Figment, Uncle Dreamfinder, you’ve brought home a cat man from another world?!”

“Uh…cat man?”

“Capri, Spark, this is Alex Wavers.” Dreamfinder introduces with a smile. “He wants to enroll in the Academy, too. Alex, this is my niece and her imaginary friend.”

“So awesome! So cool!” Capri tenses.

“Skiddlely-dee, how fun that will be!” Spark rhymes.

“That is, if the Chairman will allow him to stay.” Fye points out. “I’m sure he will.”

“Niece?” Alex asks dumbfounded. “Well…uh, it’s…easy to see where you get your looks from…and enthusiasm.”

“Yeah, well, we ARE a couple generations apart.” said Capri.

“What? A couple…generations…apart?”

“I’ll explain it to you in a bit.” Figment says. “It’s a lo-o-o-o-ong story.”

“You’d better explain it soon, Figment, because I’m starting to get a little befuddled here.” said Rachel with her brown eyes streaking back and forth from Dreamfinder to Capri and back.

“Alex, shall we go see the Chairman now?” Fye asks.

“Yeah, in a bit.” Alex smiles still, finding it hard to look away from Capri. But then he snaps, “I mean, yeah! Yeah, let’s go!”

Alex runs off away from Capri and back to Fye’s side. They both turn from the group and start leaving towards the Chairman’s office. The expression on Capri’s face looks both confused and flattered at the same time. She has both of her hands behind her back and lifts herself to her tiptoes to the top of Spark’s head. Now Capri is starting to blush as well.

“Capri?” Dreamfinder speaks. “Capri.”

“Earth to Capri!” Rachel teases. “Dreamfinder just said your name.”

“Can I take a message?” Capri asks, not taking her eyes off of Alex leaving.

“Capri!” Dreamfinder exclaims with a loud hearty laugh.

“What?!”

“You like Alex!” Figment reveals.

“I’m beginning to.” Capri admits. “He is a foreign life form that should be greeted with friendship and good acts of kindness. That’s all.”

“A good act of kindness involving making kissy faces for him in your head?” Rachel jokes.

“No! I’m gonna go to class now. Goodbye!”

“No, no, Capri! Come back!” Dreamfinder calls as he tries to hold in the giggling. “We were just having a little fun. I’m actually happy you’re starting to feel for someone.”

“Like you are?”

“Oh!” Figment reacts.

“It’s adjourned! You just got burned!” Spark concludes.

“Spark!” Dreamfinder shouts.

“Wow! I am LOVING this little guy!” Rachel laughs. “So uh, does he only speak in rhyme? Or does he say other things, too?”

“No, just rhymes.” said Capri.

“I love to rhyme! It helps to pass the time.” Spark says happily.

“Uh-huh.” Rachel grunts.

“How’s your mother doing, Capri?” Dreamfinder asks.

“She’s doing good.” said Capri in an excited tone. “Things haven’t really been the same since the last time you two came here; as in ‘not been the same, but for the better’ kind of not the same. Now that we both have our own imaginary friends, everything we do is now four times fun and whenever we want to talk on our own time we can always count on either mine or her imaginary friends to chat with.”

“I’m glad. For all you’ve done to help me and Figment, you deserve to have your own imaginary friend brought to life.”

“ ‘All that she’s done?’ What did she do?” Rachel asks.

“Another long story. We’ll explain later.” said Figment.

“Why is everything a long story?”

“Hey, I don’t know what my mom will say, but if you guys want I’d love to have you spend the night at my house after school.” Capri offers.

“Yay! Sleepover!” Figment cheers.

“Easy, Figment.” Dreamfinder says, putting an arm in front of Figment. “Seeing as how we’re family, we’d be happy to stay. But only if your mother allows it.”

“I’ll give her a call right now…” Capri agrees, “…after class, I’d better get going!”

“We’d better not wait, or we’ll be late!” Spark again rhymes on cue.

“Okay, Capri. We’ll let you go for now.” said Dreamfinder.

“Okay! See you outside at the front after school?” Capri suggests.

“Alright.” As Capri starts running off in excitement with Spark flying by her side, Dreamfinder then runs up to her and calls out, “Capri, wait!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m…I’m proud of you. For all you’ve done for Figment and me a year ago and for how well you’re achieving here in the Academy, I couldn’t be more happy and proud to be your uncle.”

“…EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! OMYGOSH! OMYGOSH! OMYGOSH! OMYGOSH! I LOVE YOU!” Capri squeals as she jumps up and down happily. She instantly grabs a huge hug from her uncle, squeezing him real tightly. Her loud giggling echoes throughout the hallways, revealing the shrieks of her excitement.

“Whoa! Okay, little lady. I love you, too.” Dreamfinder says, returning the hug and providing a kiss on Capri’s ginger head. “We’ll see you later.”

“ ‘Kay! Bye!”

“Bye, Capri! Bye, Spark!” Figment shouts.

Capri and Spark start running off towards one of the classrooms, leaving her uncle and his dragon friend behind. Her feet are stomping loudly as fast as she is running. Her pigtail braids are flying in the air behind her, her backpack bouncing with every step she makes, and her smile is big with great enthusiasm. As they disappear from the group’s view, Dreamfinder lets out a nice smile, chuckling to himself.

“Capri’s sounds really cool.” said Rachel.

“Yes, she’s a sweet girl.” Dreamfinder chuckles. “I wish I’d know which one of my siblings is it her family came from.”

“You have siblings?”

“Five. I’m the eldest of the six.”

“Nice. Hey, where did Alex and Fye go?” Rachel asks.

“They said they were going to the Chairman’s office.” answered Figment.

“Oh right, where is that?”

“It’s this way.”

Figment flies off ahead of Dreamfinder and Rachel giddy as a kipper with his wings fluttering in a rapid pace. The two of them start running after him. They all go together making sharp turns and nearly running over more students and their imaginary friends. Almost all the walls around them look exactly the same with their light blue colors. The only difference is that about half of the building inside the Academy are geometrically in a cube or rectangular shape, while the half are either in arches, cylinder pillars, and in balconies. The exterior looks awesome enough, Rachel thought, despite her queasiness in being here, but the interior looks even more impressive!

Finally, Figment stops in front of a brown door with a golden handle and a glass window. The letters on the door are painted “Austin Auckley—Chairman.” Inside that door, Chairman Auckley should be behind his desk talking with Alex Wavers about his possible future in the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus with Fye beside him. Dreamfinder gently knocks the glass on the door. A voice from inside shouts, “Come in, it’s open!” The Dreamfinder turns the handle and opens the door. He enters the room first, then Figment and Rachel. They find an African-American man dressed in a fine olive-green dress suit and orange tie sitting behind his desk with Fye beside him. A name card is set to the left side of the desk saying “Chairman Auckley.” Alex Wavers is sitting right across from him and Fye. His arms are tense with excitement as they shoot down with his hands on his knees. His tail is curled around one of the legs behind his chair. But Alex doesn’t notice Dreamfinder, Figment or Rachel because he is completely focused on the shocked expression on the Chairman’s face.

“Oh good, you’ve found us!” said Fye.

“Hello, Fye.” Dreamfinder greets. “Chairman Auckley?”

There wasn’t a response. The Chairman is just sitting there with his jaw open and his arms and hands shaking themselves numb. The irises in his brown eyes have shrunken tiny at the sight of the Katkin sitting right across from him. The facts have become clear enough that no one, not even Chairman Auckley, has even seen someone like Alex before.

“Chairman?” Figment says, breaking the silence.

“I…I…” the Chairman stuttered.

“Uh…is he okay, Fye?” Rachel asks.

“Let’s just say Chairman Auckley is seeing a unique quality in Mr. Wavers here.” Fye replied.

“So in other words, the interview hasn’t even started. Which means we’re just in time!”

“Chairman Auckley, are you okay?” Dreamfinder speaks out.

“You don’t look so good.” said Figment as he waves his arm in front of the Chairman’s face, hoping to snap the Chairman back to his senses. “You look a little pale.”

“I…” the Chairman stutters again.

“Let me try.” Rachel intervenes. She walks up to the front of the Chairman’s desk, looks at him in the eye and says, “Sorry, Chairman.” In an instant, she gives a big wallop to his face, leaving a much redder spot on his face from the slap.

“RACHEL!” Dreamfinder shrieks. “WHAT THE HECK?!”

“Wha-what happened?” the Chairman clicks back.

“Oh good! You’re back!” Rachel says, happily.

“Rachel, what did I tell you about doing something like this?” Dreamfinder shouts angrily.

“You told me not to yell at Figment. I just brought him back to Earth.”

“YOU SLAPPED THE SCHOOL’S CHAIRMAN IN THE FACE!!!”

“You what?” the Chairman yells.

“Why do you think I said sorry to him before I did it?”

“Are you even sorry?” Dreamfinder asks in frustration.

“Hey! Can we get back to the subject at matter here?” Figment interrupts.

“Fine. We’ll talk about this later, Rachel.”

“Sure.” Rachel agrees.

“Uhh…okay.” Auckley speaks dumbfounded. “uh-it’s good to see you again, Dreamfinder, Figment. And who is this? The one that ‘slapped’ me?”

“Rachel. It’s nice to you, sir. Sorry about the slapping.”

“Since you’re a friend of Dreamfinder and Figment’s, you’re lucky I don’t call security.”

“Thank you.”

“Ri-i-i-i-i-i-ight…and who and what is this person sitting across from me?”

“My name is Alex Wavers, Mr. Chairman.” said Alex. “I’m a Katkin from the world of Iyrilia where Dreamfinder, Rachel and Figment found me at. They brought me here to help me enroll for a seat in the Academy.”

“Oh! You-you want to attend here.”

“That’s right. I’m a hard worker, I am self-taught, I enjoy helping others, and my strongest field is building advanced technology, calculus, and statistics.”

“That’s…that’s great! H-have you just graduated from a high school or a previous college in Iyla?”

“Iyrilia. And…no, I haven’t. The economy at home was pretty corrupt and it prevented me from attending any college. All of the middle and lower classes were really getting sucked dry of our wealth and all of the students in the schools were selected only because they supported the governor we all hated.”

“What?”

“It’s true!” Dreamfinder intervenes. “Iyrilia was in terrible trouble and it was Alex’s intelligence, strategy, and mechanics that helped saved the city.”

“Yeah, and I almost died falling down a thousand-foot skyscraper after the governor dropped me from the penthouse.” Rachel adds.

“I almost got choked by a bigger Katkin like him with wings.” said Figment. “But we made up and became friends afterwards.”

“Very well.” Chairman Auckley says. “So…Alex. What exactly do see yourself wanting to do in your career?”

“I want to build advanced household appliances and build airplanes that could help the Iyrilian military to protect my country. And seeing as how nice America is from what I’ve seen so far, I would gladly give my service to helping this country stay safe and efficient.”

Suddenly a knock on the door is heard.

“Come in!” the Chairman calls out. “Now Alex, why did you choose to enroll in the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus?”

A man walks into the room. His short dirty-blonde hair curls upward, he looks like he is in his early forties in age, and under his white pharmacist coat is a gray dress suit with a black tie with golden spots. The expression in his face shows that he is moping when he isn’t smiling. Otherwise, the smiles he would show make him look far more pleasant.

“You’ve sent for me, Mr. Chairman?” the man said.

All of a sudden, Rachel’s eyes grow big and her irises contract with fear. There is something about that voice that has made her nerves get the jitters. The temperature in her blood begins to drop dramatically. Her hands and her knees are shaking terribly from the inside. Her whole figure is frozen stiff to where she is starting to become numb at every fiber of her being. For whatever reason, the sound of that voice makes her want to jump out the window. But maybe her mind is playing tricks on her. It could be a different man with a familiar voice. To be sure, Rachel quickly turns her head around and sees the man who has just walked in behind Dreamfinder and Figment. Sure enough, whoever this man is, he’s making Rachel start to making really fast, short breaths. She jumps a little and quickly hides half of herself behind Dreamfinder.

“Oh my God…” Rachel gasps to herself.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” said the man. “I didn’t know you were having a meeting.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright.” said the Chairman. “Dreamfinder, Figment, I never got a chance last time to introduce to our Principal Scientist and Head of Laboratories…Dr. Nigel Channing.”

“No…” Rachel gasps again.

“Oh! Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Channing.” Dreamfinder said, shaking Channing’s hand.

“Hello, hello, hello!” Figment cheers.

“The pleasure is all mine, believe me.” said Dr. Channing, showing a grin on his face. “All mine.”

The sight of Dr. Channing’s smile seems to have caught an easiness in everyone except one person: Rachel. Her short breaths are becoming slightly louder than before. The mere presence of this man is really making this girl uncomfortable. She takes a few steps back towards Chairman Auckley’s desk and next to Alex. Whatever her problem is, she had hoped in her mind that she would have never seen this man again.


	31. Chapter 31

“It’s a real honor to you, Mr. Dreamfinder.” said Dr. Channing with ecstasy. “You, as well, Figment.”

The moment Dr. Nigel Channing comes in with his pleasant attitude, everyone but Rachel starts to feel a deceiving sense of warmth in him. His attitude seems harmless enough to describe him as one of the friendliest people alive. Even the handshake he has with both Figment and Dreamfinder gives away the amiable personally he must have.

“I cannot tell you how much I have always admired your work and your story and how much I wanted to meet you and get to know you. That is, before and after the incident that happened the last time you were here.”

“Yes, yes. That was quite a mess,” said Dreamfinder, with a blush of embarrassment “but the fear receded and everything worked out all right in the end.”

“It has indeed! And even better, since the past events we’ve been conducting our research seeing how all this dream power is made and what it’s made of.”

“Uh…isn’t it obvious?” Figment asks. “Dream power…made of dreams…made from peoples’ imagination? It’s no rocket science.”

“Well, yes.” said Dr. Channing. “That IS true. But I believe there is something more to this dream power than just what you and Mr. Dreamfinder have found. No offense.”

“Oh, you’d REALLY LOVE TO KNOW THAT, wouldn’t you?!” Rachel shouts, angrily, behind the crowd.

That outburst has shocked everyone in the room. Their heads turn straight to Rachel with a look that each says, “What was heck?” The room grew dead silent. They all watch Rachel stand by the Chairman’s desk sweating and flustered with anger and embarrassment. Her eyes are twitching and her breaths have swiftly shortened. The sweat in Rachel’s hair is making it build up to its frizziest.

“I…I gotta go.” said Rachel in a panicky, breathy, gasping voice.

Rachel storms out of the room in a quick pace. The tension building in the office with everyone staring at her like she’s a kind of psycho woman is beginning to really weigh down upon her. As she quickly passes by, both Figment and Dreamfinder realize how weird Rachel has been acting since they’ve gotten here. Though, neither of them can understand why this is happening now, especially at a time when they are trying to enroll an incredibly intelligent applicant to the academy. The door swings wide and slams very loud behind her, leaving everyone else in the room in a state of vast confusion. Only Dreamfinder was able to break the silence for everyone.

“Uh…she’s says it’s the…uh, Florida heat.” Dreamfinder abides. “I’ll just…uh, I’ll be right back.”

Dreamfinder runs out of the room after Rachel, exposed to the light blue lighting illumination from the glass ceilings of the academy. He gently closes the door behind with, leaving with only Figment, Fye, Alex, the Chairman and Dr. Channing alone. The looks on everyone’s faces can only declare that what just happened cannot be explained. Not well, at the very least.

“So…Alex.” the Chairman starts, ignoring the events of Rachel’s outburst. “Do you…know any good sports?”

********************************************************************************************************

The poor Rachel speed walks away from the Chairman’s office towards the nearest water fountain. Without hesitation, she presses the button on the side and gulps up the water spouting out. She hangs her head down with her shoulders scrunched up and leaning her body forward toward the fountain. Her breaths have become both fast and short. Her hands tremble to the point of clenching onto the fountain’s sides. Whatever is happening to her right now, it’s making her a mess.

“What is wrong with you?!” Dreamfinder yells.

The Dreamfinder suddenly appears behind Rachel from the Chairman’s office, but she doesn’t turn back to see him. She sighs with defeat. His muscles tense with great anger building inside. The sight he had witnessed in seeing Rachel yelling at a college professor has mortified him. Rachel, however, has seen that the sight of Dr. Nigel Channing showing up out of nowhere is already mortifying enough.

“I can tell you’re upset.” Rachel sighs.

“I’m WAY past upset!” Dreamfinder shouts, angrily. “Yelling at a college professor? Slapping the Chairman?! Do you not realize what you’ve done?”

“Look. Slapping the Chairman…well, yeah, you’re right. That was really uncalled for and I’m sorry I did that. Really, I am. But Dr. Channing is whole different matter here. I don’t trust him one bit!”

“Why? Do you know him?”

“I can’t say anything, Dreamfinder! Believe me, you’re better off not knowing about it.”

“About what? For all I know, you’ve just met the guy and you’re already ruining your chances of a good first impression. Do you not realize how much embarrassment you’ve caused me to feel in there? What you did in there was FAR below low, even for you!”

“YOU DON’T KNOW ME, DREAMFINDER! YOU DON’T KNOW THE SLIGHTEST THING ABOUT ME AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO! EVER!”

“…”

“No, Dreamer. I’m…I’m sorry.” Rachel stammers. “I didn’t mean—”

“No, you know what?” Dreamfinder calmly interrupts. “I don’t care anymore. All I wanted was to show you a small, but important piece of my life and all you’ve done is just embarrass me in front of all my friends. I couldn’t even stand to look at Figment with the look I had on my face and HE is my best friend! If the Florida heat is really the problem you’re having here, okay, fine. I can put up with it and help make you feel more comfortable. Otherwise, whatever this is really about to you, I have a lot of thinking to do of whether I should keep you with me or let you go.”

“I…I understand, Dreamfinder.”

“Oh really? You do?”

“Yes, I do! You can kick me out of your adventures through imagination and never see me again for as long as you live all you want, but get this: if I were you, I’d be more worried about Dr. Channing than me. Like I said, I can’t say anything. But please, for me, watch out for him! He’s not as good of an apple as he looks.”

“Not good? How?”

“You remember how I felt about King KaZing being some kind of creep back in Fillidore? Well this is worse, WAY much worse!”

“Rachel, I appreciate your concern. But until you actually tell me why you feel this man isn’t to be trusted, then as one Scientifica-Lucidus professor to another, I HAVE to trust him.”

“…No, you don’t.”

Unsure of what to say back, Dreamfinder abruptly attempts to leave Rachel behind and heads back to the Chairman’s office. His hands turn to fists, clenching with an upsetting rage as they swing with every step he takes. The larges steps he makes signal his great need to get as far away from this problem as possible.

Suddenly, the Dreamfinder bumps into another student. She was carrying a sketchbook and a pack of colored pencils, but drops them in colliding into Dreamfinder. Like an explosion of fireworks, the pencils drop to the ground, bounce off the tips of either sides in an array of colors, and roll inches away from one another forming a sea of wooden sticks with colored lead. The sketchbook falls down and hits the ground half open, bending the pages to a creasing. 

“Oh, excuse me!” Dreamfinder exclaims.

“No, I’m sorry.” said the girl, shyly. 

Like Capri, the girl Dreamfinder has bumped into is dressed like a student attending the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus with her gray jacket and skirt, red tie, white shirt, white socks and black shoes. The only additional fashion she has is a strange, but lovely silver pendant, glistening like a diamond in the sunlight. Her slightly rounded-heart shaped head has a natural blush on her cheeks and a rosiness in her small refined nose. To match, her pink eyebrows and long and luscious salmon pink hair and bangs drapes down to her lower back like a cascade of pink lemonade. Her up-turned eyes house her gray irises that gleam like a light of a soft moon, silvering over the evening of life. And finally, if she smiles big, her pink shaded lips surround her pearly white teeth.

“No, really. I didn’t see you right there.” Dreamfinder stammers, as he tries to pick up the colored pencils.

“Dreamfinder!” the girl exclaims, picking up her sketchbook.

“Runa? Oh, Runa! Hello!”

“Long time no see!”

“So, what? Are you replacing me now?” Rachel asks

“No, Rachel, I am not. This is Runa.” said Dreamfinder. “She’s a student of the academy.”

“Hi.” Runa says in a shy tone.

“Nice to meet you.” said Rachel with a smile.

“Forgive me, girls, but would you mind I excuse myself. I have some business with the Chairman right now.”

“Of course.” said Runa.

Dreamfinder leaves the two girls alone and heads back to the Chairman’s office. Apparently, the frustration in him is still intact. As they watch Dreamfinder disappear, the girls drew closer together in their newfound loneliness. The only thing that came out a lot louder than Dreamfinder’s stomping and angered tone is the sound of him slamming the door behind him on the way back in with Figment and the others. 

“So, how did you meet Dreamfinder?” Rachel asks Runa.

“It was a year ago…the last time Dreamfinder and Figment came here.” Runa replied.

********************************************************************************************************

 

…One Year Earlier…

 

It was at the end of a school day at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, but not just any school day. It was the first very first day both Dreamfinder and Figment had entered the 21st century and arrived at the new location in Florida after saving London from the invasion of the Articulate Army. The students and staff, including Fye, watched in awe of the Dream Machine lowering down to a safe landing on the school property and out coming Dreamfinder and his little dragon friend to greet them. Everyone except for Chairman Auckley believed that these two visitors were the real deal, so they had to prove that and how much better dream power is. To do it, Dreamfinder decided to show dream power in action by riding the Dream Machine across the academy. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well. The Dream Machine crashed into the geodesic sphere, Dreamfinder jumps off, Figment saves him and then they both get a strict verbal attack from the Chairman. While the janitors started collecting the remnants of the Dream Machine to fix the Dream Machine with, Fye escorts the two of them to his office away from the Chairman’s harshness.

“I know that didn’t go as planned,” said Fye, with a voice of confidence, “but we’ll let it lie for now. You two can impress the whole Academy with dream power tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah. Sure…” Dreamfinder said in defeat from the failed demonstration.

“Just stay here. I’ll go get the janitor to collect up the machine bits in the yard so we can put it back together.”

“Okey-dokey.”

With his cane at hand, Fye leaves the office leaving his two old friends behind to help make themselves comfortable while he’s gone. This sudden failure in dream power has overwhelmed both of the two heroes, especially Dreamfinder. He slowly walks up to the window and looks outside. The Sun is setting in the horizon behind the purple-shadowed giant sphere. The sky is painted in orange sprinkled with dabs and blots of red and purple clouds. Whatever is left of the Sun is peeking over the vast forest of palm trees to the academy. It was a complete spectacle for Figment, seeing as how he has never seen a sunset before. As beautiful as this sunset is, the Dreamfinder saw this as an omen of this new reality folding over him like a new shape in an origami. His face is glum, his eyes almost half closed, his shoulders are slouched, and his body posture is off.

“No gears or pistons…” Dreamfinder groans, “…everything’s so different, Figment.”

“How did this happen?” Figment worryingly asks. “What about the power of imagination?”

“It just…it didn’t work. When we saved London I felt like I could do anything. I imagined things and in a flash they came true. But now, instead of believing, I just…froze up. I had that awful feeling all over again. That feeling I had before I succeeded with the Mesmonic Converter.”

“ ‘Feeling’? What feeling?”

“…Doubt.”

“Doubt?” Figment exclaims with surprise. “How can you feel doubt? You’ve just saved everyone in London from peril and became the Dreamfinder.”

“I know! But I feel like there’s something wrong going on in me and I feeling terrible about it! I broke a piece of glass on the top of the building, I wrecked the Dream Machine onto the geodesic sphere, and every piece of technology I see in this time period is not familiar to me from back home. I don’t know if I can stand it!”

At the door, Dreamfinder notices a piece of a fabric and a thick string of pink hair quickly leaving from the side of Fye’s office door. He just saw them gone, which has heightened his curiosity but only by a little bit. But he decided to ignore that and continue his conversation with Figment.

“So what are you going to do?” Figment asks.

“I…I don’t know.” Dreamfinder replied. “I have to prepare for the demonstration with the Mesmonic Converter tomorrow, so…I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

“You want some help?”

“No…no, I can do it myself. I just need to concentrate.”

“Okay. I’ll just…uh, I’ll just help the janitors pick the machine pieces.”

Figment flies away from Dreamfinder and leaves the office. Dreamfinder continues looking out the window to watch the sunset. Never in his life has he ever felt so melancholy inside…so utterly alone. But he wasn’t alone. The person that owned the pink hair and gray fabric skirt peered at Dreamfinder from behind the door. It crept an eye out at the sad Dreamfinder and lowered half an eyelid with sympathy. Feeling that it was unbearable to watch him, the person left.

That night, while Figment is asleep on Fye’s desk chair, Dreamfinder is out taking a walk in the darkened hallways of the academy alone. The only other person he sees walking by is the janitor mopping the blue tile floor. The only light in the building is coming from the moon gleaming from the night sky. The shadows that formed grew bigger and taller with every minute that passed. With every step, the Dreamfinder watched his shadow grow taller and merge and dance through the others. This horrible feeling of doubt inside of him is intensifying with every passing minute of the night. The icy grip of it is making him feel too numb for him to walk any further. Now Dreamfinder is beginning to hear voices in his head…horrible, abusive, threatening voices. They’re shouting, bouncing, and spiraling around in his brain about how much of a loser he is; someone who is unfit to accomplish such great lengths of both heroism and inventive genius. The voices in his head are shouting even louder than before. They’re loud enough for Dreamfinder to stop and cringe his face, ready to cry.

Suddenly, he hears a shuffling, stomping sound. It’s the sound of footsteps. His eyes perk up and searched the area. In an instant, Dreamfinder spots a girl running across the hall. He calls out to her, but she doesn’t stop. She kept on running as fast as she could, ignoring Dreamfinder’s shouting, so Dreamfinder started chasing her. Clearly, Dreamfinder was a lot faster runner than the girl is. And yet, she was still getting away. They keep making sharp turns at corners from hall to hall. Then the chase started to become intense. It was like finding a needle in a maze of giant haystacks. Finally, Dreamfinder locates the running girl. He chases after her until he sees her entering a door. The door shuts loudly and locks up behind her. The sign on the door says “Staff Only.” Why would that girl run through a door that’s only for staff?

Dreamfinder attempts to pry it open, but the door wouldn’t budge. He tries banging on it, knocking it loudly. Nothing. Then he tries to barge through it, but it only made his arm hurt. He jiggled and jangled the doorknob until the lock inside it broke off. Dreamfinder opens the door swiftly and runs inside. The room behind the door is as dark as night. His arm searches for a light switch on the wall like a wriggling octopus leg. Suddenly, he finds the switch and turns on the light.

But when he did, the light turned on only it was anything BUT a “Staff Only” room. Inside the room, there is a single pink light bulb hanging from the ceiling with its wire streaming with more pink and red light bulbs in the shape of hearts. A single bed is placed towards the farther with a cocoa-colored dresser on one side. Beside the left of the bed is a small table with a little lamp and a small drawer filled with small papers and colored pencils. Stuffed animals and figurines from Disney are placed on a desk beside the small table. Old posters are taped to the walls. Some of them are of old Disney films and parks, while the others are of famous bands and singers. There are stacks of sketchbooks piling on top of each other and taking up spaces in the corners of the room. Dreamfinder could not make out what he is seeing. Everything in this room looks anything BUT Scientifica-Lucidus related. It’s not a “Staff Only” room, it’s a bedroom!

“Uh…hello?” the Dreamfinder spoke. 

There was not a word to be heard. He saw the strange girl come in here, but it looks like she is not. Unexpectedly, he notices a little movement happening on the bed and under the covers. Dreamfinder slowly walks up to the bed, grabs onto the sheet, and abruptly pulls it away revealing the strange girl cringing in fear with her head in her pillow and in her pajamas. 

“Ah! Please don’t hurt me!” the girl shrieked.

“Wha-? No! I’m-I’m…!” Dreamfinder stuttered. “I’m not going to hurt you. Wh-who are you?”

“I’m…I’m Runa.” Runa said, shyly. “I’m a student here in the academy. You’re…You’re Dreamfinder! The one who defeated that robot army with Figment a hundred years ago!”

“Yeah. That’s me alright. Except I still can’t believe we’ve traveled that long from our own time. Time traveling with imagination? I mean…”

“I’m kind of shocked myself.”

“What are you doing here anyway? The academy is closed for the night. Shouldn’t you be home with your family?”

“I am home. This is my bedroom.”

“Your bedroom? This is where you live?”

“Yes.”

“Does anyone know about this?”

“F-Fye does. And some others. He…he adopted me after I was abandoned one night a long time ago. He took me back here and I’ve been living in secret ever since.”

“Oh…so the Chairman doesn’t know you live here either?” Dreamfinder realizes, as he takes a seat on Runa’s bed.

“Live here? He doesn’t even know I exist!” Runa replied.

“What? Why?”

“I…I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?” 

“I’ll get expelled if I tell you and then you telling Chairman Auckley.”

“You can trust me, Runa. Whatever reason Fye has brought you here must be a good one. And between you and me, I think Chairman Auckley could use a refresher course on ‘common courtesy.’ ”

“Well…” Runa starts off with a small giggle. “Fye said something to me about how he saw me fall down from the sky like a shooting star. He said I landed somewhere in forest of palm trees just outside of the academy. It was raining out that night, so I guess he must have found it hard to locate what had fallen down. When he found the very spot I landed at, I wasn’t there. Instead, I was…I was nude and walking through the forest…dazed and confused, badly bruised, weak, lost and alone. I had no recollection of what had happened before I crashed down here. I still don’t. All I remember is a flash of light, burning like fire, and crying a lot. The next thing I knew I had woken up in Fye’s arms in a hospital in town. Fye had assumed full responsibility over me and brought me back to the academy where I would be safe from who knows what. For a while, most of the academy didn’t know I was here. I was only eight years old when Mr. Auckley became the Chairman of the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and yet Fye still hasn’t said anything to him about it. I know Fye’s trying to be the father figure to me and protect me from whatever harm there may be either between me and the students or me and someone elsewhere, but hiding me here makes me feel out of sorts with the world. It’s like I don’t know what the world is anymore.”

“I…I know that feeling.” Dreamfinder sighs.

“You do?”

“Figment and I traveled one hundred years beyond what we once knew. That means every one of my family, my friends, my colleagues; everything and everyone I knew in the past are all gone! I’m beginning to imagine what must have happened to London while we were gone all these years. And now with all this new technology being made right now, impressive as they seem to be, I don’t know if I even have a place in this world anymore.”

“Do you see this necklace?” Runa asks, as she pulls out her silver ball necklace from around her neck. “Fye found me wearing this when I arrived here.”

“It’s beautiful!”

“Thanks. I don’t…I don’t remember who or what my family was like after the crash. But whenever I see myself in the mirror wearing this necklace, I keep getting blurry visions of what they must have at least looked like. And then whenever I imagine them and believe for sure that they must have looked like, I take my colors and my sketchbooks and draw what I can remember from those visions. The problem is that with every vision I have and what drawings come out of them, they keep getting weirder and weirder. This one here shows that this person must have had her hair dyed in blue, pink and purple all at once. As helpful as it gets, I think that’s just silly.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a girl with pink hair like yours all by itself before, let alone all three of those colors combined. Did you dye yours, too?”

“No. This is strangely my natural hair color! Though, it could at least be a strawberry-blonde color.”

“Well, whichever it is, you look lovely with it.” said Dreamfinder with a smile in his charm.

“Oh…thank you.” Runa blushes. “Do you have something to remind you of your family?”

“Well, I have a pocket watch my mother gave me as a birthday present with a picture of my family in-…wait.” Dreamfinder searches his pockets, only to find that they are all empty! There is nothing in the jacket pockets or his pants. He gasps, “My pocket watch! It’s gone!” Now Dreamfinder is completely devastated, for now he has nothing that would make him feel close to home. “I…I must have lost it when I was fighting off the Articulate Army way back.” Dreamfinder says with a defeated sigh. “Now I have nothing…”

“I’m sorry, Dreamfinder.” said Runa with sympathy. “But you know, you’ve still got your memories of them. And best of all, you’ve still got Figment, right?”

“Yes.” Dreamfinder smiles. “Yes, I do. Considering what we’ve both been through since I brought him to life, I guess he’s become far more worth it than a piece of clockwork. I’m glad you’ve reminded me of that.” 

“So am I. So what are you going to do now?”

“I have to prepare for another demonstration tomorrow for the academy with Figment about how great dream power is. That sure worked out very well this afternoon.”

“That’s right! You broke the dirigible earlier today.”

“You’re lucky you don’t have to collect every piece of it to put it back together.” He snickers.

“Why not just use the power of your imagination to put the Dream Machine back together in an instant?”

Dreamfinder said nothing. His dumbfounded-ness has risen up once again only to make him feeling blushed with embarrassment in the funniest way possible. He slaps a hand to his face and muffles through it.

“NOW you tell me!” Dreamfinder muffles through his gloved hand, making Runa giggle. “Well, I guess that just goes to show you how tired I must be.”

“I’m afraid so.” Runa says with a blushing smile.

“Well, in that case, I should probably leave you be. I have a lot to do for tomorrow.”

“Okay…goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Dreamfinder gets up from Runa’s bed and heads straight to the door. But before he could make it there, Runa suddenly calls out to him.

“Dreamfinder?” she says.

“Yes?” he replies.

“I wouldn’t worry about trying to fit in to this time period. For some reason, I know far less about Earth than you or anyone else in this world. With you, you can at least find a way to cope with a new look on life and a new atmosphere of things. And again, worst case scenario, you’ll still have Figment to be there for you.”

“I know. Thanks, Runa.”

“No…thank you. Um…can you turn off the light on your way out?”

“Of course.”

With a smile on his face, Dreamfinder flips the switch to where the room gets completely dark and steps outside the room. Before the door closes, he watches Runa make herself comfortable in her sheets and mattress. Runa drapes herself under the soft comforter, snuggling her face onto her pillow and sleeping like an infant child. The innocence in her rises to Dreamfinder’s senses. The gleaming on Runa’s hot-salmon pink hair sparkles under the creek of the moon’s light from outside. This mysterious being is safely sleeping, unaware by the entire school board and body, including the Chairman, except for Fye and now Dreamfinder, in the heart of the academy. Dreamfinder then closes the door and leaves Runa in the peaceful darkness of her own world.

********************************************************************************************************

“Wow!” Rachel exclaims. “So you’ve lived here in the academy all your life?”

“That’s right.” Runa said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love it here and I love Fye for supporting me and taking care of me all these years. But someday I’m going to graduate and leave here, free to do whatever I want to do…starting with figuring out and searching for my real family.”

“You go do it, girl! Personally, I didn’t have the best family life myself, but having a family is far better than having none at all.”

“Thank you, Rachel. Oh! I have to get to class!”

“Runa, wait a minute. I have to ask you something.”

“Sure. What is it?”

“You’ve been here for a very long time and I was wondering…how long has Dr. Channing been here in the academy?” Rachel asks.

“Oh, Dr. Channing. Please don’t get started with him.” Runa shivers uncomfortably. “That guy’s been giving me the creeps since he first got here.”

“Yes! Me too! Figment and Dreamfinder seem to take a liking to him, but I don’t! I can’t explain it out here, but I know his face from somewhere and I have a bad feeling he’s going do something to them.”

“That’s not good.”

“Do you know how long he’s been here?”

“Well…I was only three years old at the time, so I don’t remember much. But I think it might have been fifteen years ago because I read how he was beginning an experiment with some powerful material the same year he arrived here.”

“Fifteen years? Oh God…”

“I’m sorry that I haven’t been much of help, Rachel, but—”

“Oh no! You’ve actually helped me out a lot, Runa!” Rachel exclaims. “Thank you!”

“Anytime.” Runa smiles. As she holds her sketchbook to her chest, she concludes, “A friend of Dreamfinder and Figment’s is a friend of mine. Now I gotta go. I don’t want to be late for class. Bye!”

“Bye!”

Runa runs off from Rachel down the hall and up the stairs to her next class. Rachel is left all alone outside of the Chairman’s office where inside is a very angry and upset Dreamfinder surrounded by confused friends. Going back in there would mean both having to deal with Dreamfinder’s possible silent treatment AND standing so close to a suspicious Dr. Channing, but at least it’s better than being alone. So Rachel walks up to the door with the Chairman’s name on it, gently knocks on the window on the door, and gently turns the door handle. 

But before she enters, a rapid shaking in her necklaces bounces off on Rachel’s chest. The blue light from inside shines brightly almost blinding the poor girl. In an instant, she sees Yuna’s aura-like self shooting out of the gem and hits the ground next the Rachel, forming her shape into her human form. Her blue, purple, pink hair brilliantly shines with the matching blue color of the sky under the Florida sun and her white dress is as pure as winter snow. As the remains of Yuna’s magic turns into flesh, she watches Runa speeding off to her class in a hurry. For some reason, she is feeling the need to cry.

“Oh my gosh…” Yuna gasps.

“Yuna?” said Rachel. “What’s wrong?”

“That girl…that girl you were just talking to…what is her name?”

“Runa. Heh, it’s kinda funny, though. You two kind of have the same name, but with different first letters.”

“Rachel…that girl, Runa, is my younger sister!”

“What?!" Rachel gasps. "Are you sure? But…but how?”

“A long time ago," Yuna begins, "my father and mother have just been made rulers of our people. My mother, bless her heart, has always cared very much for our people and the goodness they possess, but my father only cared for power and the bright ideas our people had that would only help his reign as our ruler very strong…strong enough to dominate anything, anyone and any world that would defy him of his might. Many of us knew how much badly my father was getting every passing day and if he should continue his reign, he would lead us all into the depths of peril. As the eldest daughter, I was believed to be given the responsibility of taking father’s place on the throne once his time would end,. But being the greedy and shady ruler he is, he did everything he could to prevent that from happening. So now, I have no right to take the throne from in time, but when or if he and my mother would ever bear a son. In time, while my father away for a long while, my mother had secretly been pregnant and we’ve both been blessed with my sister, Runa. And by the time she had been born, my mother placed a vote for our people to withdraw the rule that would prevent me or my sister from taking the throne when our father passes on and never bring it back up again. When my father finally returned and learned of this, he was outraged! He sentenced my mother to jail until her death and rotted. I was only eight years old, in your human years, when it happened. I cried and cried endlessly for my mother’s sentence. I was forbidden to go see her or else my death would be instant. Then one night, I had overheard the priests in our church talking amongst themselves saying how Runa may be the key to ending my father’s reign once and for while. I don’t know how, but I had hoped and believed it’d happen. But my father had his spies sent to them and learned of the rumors himself. And on that same night, he entered Runa’s nursery and took her in his arms and left. He lied to me that he was going to either feed her or change her, making me believe he was finally going to be a father. But what did her do?”

“What did he do?” Rachel asks.

“He went to the nearest cannon, placed my younger sister in a capsule that would defy the effects of space, and shot her away from home to wander the universe until her death!” Yuna said, crying.

“Oh my God, that’s horrible! You know what? We are REALLY bad with our dads, aren’t we?”

“I had hoped…that I would live the rest of my childhood with my sister. We’d be playing together, grow up together, get married together, and be the best of friends. But up until today, I had believed Runa to be dead. Now that I see Runa alive and well with the splitting image of our mother, I’m overjoyed! But with Runa being a baby in those events, I highly doubt she knows what happened.”

“Then go talk to her!”

“No, I…I don’t know how to tell her!”

“You have to tell her somehow! She just told me of a sketch she made a year ago of a person with blue, purple and pink dyed hair that appeared in her dreams. Who else could possibly have those colors together in their hair all at once?”

“She did? Then…then you think she…do I even have a chance?” Yuna stammers.

“Hey, I don’t know how long we’re gonna be here.” Rachel says. “I hate being in this place with this bad vibe enough as it is. So until we actually leave, I’d suggest you go over to Runa’s classroom and tell her the truth before it’s too late!”

“…You’re right. I’ll go. But what about—”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll call for you when I need you. Now go…go see your sister.”

“…”

“GO!”

Yuna immediately shifts back into her sprite form and speeds off like a rocket following Runa’s trail, leaving Rachel all alone again. As she disappears, Rachel turns back to the Chairman’s office door and opens it gently.

********************************************************************************************************

As she enters, she sees everyone turning their heads towards her…everyone except for Dreamfinder. He just titled his eyes toward Rachel direction with giving any interaction like he doesn’t care. As much as Rachel already knows the reason why, that just hurts. Alex is out of his chair shaking the Chairman’s hand by the time she came in. Beforehand there were already a bunch of smiles on their faces for some happy reason. But when Rachel came in, it was like a giant wave of uncomforting awkwardness just washed all that happiness away.

“E-Excuse me, everyone.” Rachel speaks shyly.

“Rachel! Where have you been?” Figment exclaims cheerfully.

“I…want to apologize for my behavior earlier. It was totally inappropriate and unladylike of me to spat off like that. If…if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to rejoin you in here.”

“Of course, Ms. Rachel.” Fye said happily. “You’re just in time for the good news! Alex?”

“I’m in! I’m in the academy now! I start next semester!” Alex shouts excitedly.

“Aw dude! That’s awesome!” Rachel squeals as she tightly squeezes a hug for Alex. “Congratulations!”

“Thanks!”

“Alright, Alex! I knew you’d get in!” Figment cheers.

“Thank you! All of you!” 

“Congratulations, Alex.” Dreamfinder steps up, shaking Alex’s hand. “You’re brother would be proud.”

“I know he is.” Alex smiles.

Suddenly, a student in a lab coat comes rushing into the office and shouts, “Dr. Channing! Mr. Fye! We’ve got something on the radar!”

“Excellent!” Dr. Channing exclaims.

“Wonderful!” Fye exclaims also. “Dreamfinder, how would you and your friends like to see what we are researching now in our labs? It has a lot to do with the dream power we’ve been experimenting on.”

“We’d be happy to.” said Dreamfinder.

“Lead the way, ol’ buddy!” Figment shouts.

“Yes, I’m sure you’ll find what we’re working on quite fascinating.” said Dr. Channing as he reveals a slight devilish smirk on his face to which only Rachel had noticed.

From what Runa had just told Rachel about Channing and with all the suspicions and bad vibes she has been getting since he had arrived at the academy with her friends, the worst is about to come.


	32. Chapter 32

Excited with the news of Alex Wavers getting accepted in the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, Dr. Nigel Channing takes his guests out of the Chairman’s office for a special surprise. The young Katkin cannot contain himself. His furry legs are shaking vigorously in his veins with every step. The only way that is keeping him from squealing like a piglet is Dreamfinder gripping him by the shoulders and pushing him down a little. But who can blame the boy? He is finally given the chance to have the education he has always wanted and do his dead brother proud.

With each passing moment, the color blue on the walls is gleaming brighter and brighter by the afternoon sunlight. But it only seems to look even darker and darker the longer the distance Rachel is walking with a person she is so suspicious about. Why she is like this is by far the biggest mystery both Dreamfinder and Figment can ever figure out if they can. Alex, however, remains too excited to care about it since the Chairman’s decision is immediately changing his life forever. Rachel is trying her best not to physically show any grudge in front of her friends, Dreamfinder most of all. She keeps her arms and fists tied behind her back to avoid anyone seeing them shake. The only comfort she is given in this is Dreamfinder’s arm wrapping around her shoulder. The least she is doing to repay is showing a highly deceiving smile. In fact, just looking at him and a couple glances at Figment are the only two things that are helping distract her from the backside of Dr. Channing. Whatever Rachel’s reasons are for fearing him, he is becoming just as frightening looking at his backside, as he must be on his front. 

Joining Alex’s excitement, Figment flutters about around the group as they walk through the halls of the academy. The by-standing and passerby students who see him all shout out a great big “Hello!” and “Wassup, Figment?” everywhere they are going. With all of the praises Figment is getting from the students as Figment flies about doing figure eights and loop-de-loops for their entertainment, Fye, Dreamfinder, and especially Rachel, cannot help but laugh together. Alex, of course, if enjoying Figment’s act, but the only person in the group who isn’t taking in as much humor or much attention in it is Dr. Channing. He doesn’t seem to be the whimsical type compared to Figment, or at the very least, Dreamfinder. Despite this, he only seems to smile when he looks at Dreamfinder, which is making the terrible vibes Rachel is feeling all the more worse.

“You’re awfully quiet, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” said Rachel, making sure no one else is listening. “I’m just feeling a little cooled off from all the yelling and the suspiciousness going on in me.”

“So you’re alright with meeting Dr. Channing then?”

“Hell, no!” Rachel shouts in a whisper, hoping Dr. Channing didn’t hear her. “I don’t trust him one bit even if he and I were to be the last people to live on Earth. Believe me, Dreamfinder, he’s not as he seems.”

“Alright, fine. If it will make you happy, I’ll keep my distance a little bit and watch my step with him. Will that make you feel better.”

“No, but go ahead anyway. The last thing I want more than anything is for him to…”

“To what?”

“It’s…better you don’t know right now.”

Finally, they come across a laboratory much like the other labs they have passed by on the way. A control panel is at the left of this giant door. As Dr. Channing dials in a certain code on the control panel, the door splits in two, sliding away from each other and opening the lab for the guests and staff.

“This way! Step lively now!” Channing barks, as he rushes ahead into the giant room.

Rather intimidated, Rachel hesitates to move her legs. Dreamfinder’s gentle arm then pushes her forward from behind her neck with his firm hand on her shoulder. Just as well, Figment is beginning to feel a strange sense in him about this new environment. What Figment and Rachel are feeling doesn’t seem to affect either Dreamfinder or Alex. Fye is in both a calm and excited mood of his own: calm to be a professional staff of the academy, and excited for the sake of showing his dearest friends what new technologies the academy has come up with. Channing, more boldly, walks into the lab filled with confidence and assurance that what he is doing in here with the students’ help is all his own and he is proud of it. 

The lab is filled with computers that look like they are from the 1950s, synchronizing whatever is making their parts jitter, beep, or ding. The ceiling is pitch black with rows of small, large, fat and skinny pipes of different kinds that are drilled in. There are tables scattered with papers and tubes and hooked-up computers. Giants cylinder tubes stand together on the far left side of the room, filled with gallons of green liquid bubbling constantly. Except for the liquid, all of the tubes seem to be empty except for one; a strange-looking metal man, a robot perhaps, is floating motionless in the farthest tube from the door. Its sight is probably perhaps the most menacing looking thing in the laboratory. To Dreamfinder, it looks just like one of the Articulate Army’s robots who had previously attacked London a century ago, back when Dreamfinder first became the “Dreamfinder,” which explains how seeing it for the first time in that long has made him jump back a little, remembering such a horrible flashback of is home country. He suddenly receives a soft pat on the shoulder from Fye, his oldest friend next to Figment, who had also shared this horrific event.

“No need to be afraid, Mr. Dreamfinder.” said Channing. “It won’t come out and hurt you.” 

“Where did you find this?” Dreamfinder gasps in question.

“After you and Figment had disappeared from 1910 with the Singular and his Articulate Army, only a small number of the robots remained in London.” said Fye, grimly. “Most of them were smashed to bits, some were disassembled by the people of London, while the rest of the few had either melted, been electrocuted, or short circuited during battle. This one, however, is the only robot that has remained in mint condition, full body and without a single scratch. It may have been the Singular’s strongest of all of the robots he had brought him from the Clockwork Control.”

“Yes!” Channing intervenes. “We have discovered this in an abandoned house on our last trip to London in recent years and had it sent back here into the academy. The people who had informed us of this discovery believed that this particular robot was cornering a poor family during the epic battle, threatening them to salute to the “perfect order,” as they called it, and side with the Clockwork Control. It seems, however, that when you had left your own time period and taking most of the Articulate Army with you, this robot had abruptly collapsed with no sign of energy left in it. We brought it back here to the new Florida location hoping that we can repair him with a new purpose of becoming a kind teacher’s assistant for starters. After that, who knows what we can accomplish with him.”

“Why is he in a giant tube with green juice all around him?” Figment asks, squeamish with the memories of that century long-passed battle.

“We are trying to remove whatever rust is left and give him a longer lasting protective coat.”

“What is this place?” Alex asks.

“This is the laboratory for our latest and greatest research.” Fye announces.

“Dream power formulation!” Channing clarifies.

“Formulation?” Dreamfinder repeats in confusion. “I don’t entirely see where you are getting at.”

“Mr. Dreamfinder, when you and Figment first traveled through the realms of imagination, what were your first thoughts?”

“My thoughts were all ‘WOW!’ and ‘Exciting!’” Figment expresses happily.

“Dreamfinder?” Channing asks Dreamfinder, while disregarding Figment’s playful attitude.

“Well…” Dreamfinder begins, “when we first used the Mesmonic Converter I invented, I had a hard time figuring out how mind energy would become matter and why. And I remember realizing the answer that it’s all part of using our imagination. Whatever I thought of doing or dreamed about, it would all become reality at my own feet or right in my own hands.”

“And do you know what has made it a reality?”

“Duh! Are you deaf?” Rachel rudely asks, receiving a strict scowl from Dreamfinder’s face as if she hasn’t learned her lesson. “He just said he was using his imagination when it happened. Imagination plus Dreamfinder equals dream come true! So why are you asking something you already know the answer to?”

“Rachel.” Dreamfinder growls.

“Now, now, Mr. Dreamfinder. It’s okay. I’m glad she has asked.” Channing says, as he hides a sense of evilness in his smirk within his voice. “This isn’t a question I merely know the answer to. It is a question I feel what has made me ask it?”

“Congratulations! You’ve just lost me by using twenty-two completely undecipherable words in two complicated sentences. Give the man a prize!” she claps.

“Rachel, that’s enough!” Dreamfinder growls louder.

“Alright, alright. I’m done now.”

“You’re done?”

“I’m done.

“Dreamfinder,” Channing continues, “do you remember making Figment come to life?”

“Well, yes! I ought to.” said Dreamfinder.

“With dream power?”

“Naturally.”

“Have you always wondered what that dream power is actually made of? Physically?”

“Physically? Well…offhand, no. I’ve never actually thought of it. I always imagined imagination being made out of our memories and emotions.”

“That’s true. But since the last incident with you defeating the Doubtfinder in the end, we’ve been experimenting with the last physical components of the dream energy left that was puffing out all over the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and examining thoroughly of what this dream power is really made of.”

“Wowie-wow! That sounds fascinating!” exclaims Figment.

“Cool!” Alex exclaims also.

“That sounds brilliant!” said Dreamfinder. “Have you any luck figuring it out?”

“Luck? Psssh!” Channing scoffs. “You don’t get your answers just by mere luck. You get your answers by finding them yourself through great observation. You of all people, Mr. Dreamfinder, must know what it takes to be a scientist.”

“Inventor, really. But for observation, yes.”

“We were, however, lucky enough to have found something that may be the key figuring out this fanciful mystery of ours. If I can just find it…here…” Dr. Channing searches one of the tables in the lab, removing test tubes and sliding papers aside in a calm, yet slightly frantic manner. “Oh dear, it seems that I can’t…uh…find what I’m looking for. Can you give me a moment?”

“In the meantime,” Fye intervenes, “how about I show you what’s happening in the computer here?” 

As everyone but Channing gathers around Fye at the computer, Fye puts his cane aside and starts typing. The buttons on the keyboard glow and his fingers press down on them making a click-clacking sound. On the screen, a series of programs pop out like random advertisements on YouTube filled with diagrams, calculation and 3D models and graphs detailing on the same subject. Finally, Fye comes across a program that looks a lot like a radar. It has an aerial 3D model of the entire world on one panel off to the side of the screen and one main panel with a modeling of the entire state of Florida.

“Since we’ve reenergized the academy with dream power,” Fye begins, “we’ve been detecting more amounts of it that have been appearing throughout the world through this dream sensor and started gathering some data. There are about 49.2% of the world who are dreaming for the sake of dreaming in a variety of scenarios that happen in them, 26.2% are dreaming for their career goals, much like Dreamfinder has done in the beginning, while the rest of the 24.6% are dreaming dreams that may be trying to either inform them of any information or sort out their problems.”

“That…seems like a pretty accurate 100%.” Dreamfinder concluded, calculating the numbers in his head.

“Indeed. Now here is a 3D rendering of all the dreamers calculated right here in Florida. Before moving in completely into Florida, we did a little observation with some of the residents and some psychologists in the area and suspected that the average amount of dream power between 1910 to early 1911 taken up nearly a quarter of the state. But since old man Illocrant moved the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus here completely, the average amount dream power has increased by thirty to fifty percent over the past century, taking up to almost half of Florida.”

“That’s cool in all, but how is all of that really progressive?” Rachel asks. “Thirty to fifty percent in one section of the state within a year sounds really good. I mean, really good! But I’m sure by now there’s bound to be a lot more dreamers than that here in Florida, let alone just this very spot.”

“I’m glad you said that.” said Fye with an assuring smile brightening up on his face. “But this is only the half of it. I’m sure Ms. Rachel has heard of this name as most people do, but have you ever heard of the name Walt Disney?”

“Walt Disney?” Dreamfinder repeats in question.

“Of course!” Figment exclaims. “Dreamfinder! He’s that man whose name has been all over that convention thing we went to where we met Rachel. Something about him making this mouse character and this huge amusement park.”

“Oh that’s right! I never knew him, but I’ve occasionally watched a few of his ‘animated cartoons’ while we were setting up backstage. His work is quite remarkable!”

“Wait. Who is Walt Disney?” Alex asks.

“A REALLY huge idol of the 20th century! Next to Dreamfinder and Figment, I suppose.” Rachel replies, while trying not to let her friends feel left out. “He was an artist, actor, entrepreneur, innovator, cartoon animator, and film producer, as well as a great dad and husband to his family who are, by now, all passed. Right across the street from the convention where we met is the Disneyland Park that he himself, along with his own team of Imagineers, built within a year! All with the funds they received from producing a Disneyland television show during the early 1950s. Later he tried to build another theme park here in Orlando, Florida succeeding the Disneyland location in Anaheim, California, but because he had smoked for a majority of his lifetime, he died peacefully with lung cancer in the hospital across the street from his studio, which forced his business partner, and older brother, Roy O. Disney to postpone his retirement and finish the Florida park’s construction. It was dedicated to Walt’s life and passing and was renamed from ‘the Florida Project’ to ‘Walt Disney World’ or ‘Walt Disney World Resort.’ First, the Magic Kingdom, whose themes are a lot like the Disneyland, California version opened first, then EPCOT came along as it was intended but not in the same visual idea as Walt have had when he died, then Disney’s Hollywood Studios where it focused a lot on the famous blockbuster films throughout the past century, and lastly Disney’s Animal Kingdom with its natural environment and animal conservation. But it was always Walt Disney’s dream to open EPCOT specifically not just for the sake of it being a theme park, but an actual suburban community with shops and schools and recreational parks and homes galore! The park was opened in 1982, but it didn’t come out in the same vision as Walt had planned because his Imagineers feared they would not be able to persuade anyone into building it this way as Walt would have, and Walt Disney, if anything, was REALLY good at persuasion.”

“Nerd!” Dr. Channing shouted from behind the group.

“…N-nerd? I’m a nerd?!” Rachel then starts muttering and mumbling to herself. “Well excuse me to teaching a little history here!”

“That’s exactly so, Ms. Rachel!” Fye exclaims, as he swiftly types the keyboard. “The average amount of dream power had skyrocketed dramatically since Disney completed the first construction there, about 60% more than what it usually was during that time, which brings up what is happening now.”

“Now?” said Figment.

“In the past ten years, Figment, the average amount of dream power that has been showing before and after the events of you and Dreamfinder is about 85.6% in the entire state, 98.2% in this region alone. But lately, something strange has come up.” Fye then types and clicks onto another panel to pop up, showing a very intricate graph. With a computer mouse on the side, Fye clicks on the maximize button and enlarges panel to take up the entire screen. He then reports, “The dream power amount has been within the same scale as it has been for the past decade until this happened. This graph shows how much more or less the dream power has appeared in a certain amount of years. But today, for some reason, there has been rapid climb of dream power striking up all of a sudden.”

“A rapid climb?” said Dreamfinder. “Where?”

“Now let’s see…where did I put that capsule?” Dr. Channing mutters in the back as he continues searching.

“We believe this is happening at this particular spot.” Fye clicks onto the previous panel of the 3D rendering of Florida and zooms into on a very familiar location. The area is crowded with people and tourists walking about around a giant lagoon with what seems to look like a giant golf ball in the very center.

“Wait. Is that…?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Yes, it is. That’s Epcot Park. And that geodesic sphere is Epcot’s Spaceship Earth.” 

“Wow, oh wow! Look at the giant sphere!” Figment shouts. “It looks just like how Rachel described it a while back.”

Seeing this place, most people find it very happy and welcoming to want to go there. For once, Rachel doesn’t. For some reason, seeing the Epcot theme park where Fye has pointed out where the dream power increase is coming from has made her tense up inside. Her arms become stiff, cold and numb as ice. Her eyes are bulging hugely out of their sockets like a very frightened cartoon character’s eyes. And her mouth is quivering and chattering uncontrollably.

“Wait a second.” said Dreamfinder. “We assumed that there must be two of these giant spheres coming in and disappearing at the same time. If the academy’s sphere is gone, how is this one still here?”

“Hey, that’s right!” Figment exclaims. “We didn’t see our sphere anywhere near the academy when we came in today. How can this be?”

“We don’t know.” said Fye. “It’s likely that the rumors of Epcot’s Spaceship Earth disappearing may either be just a coincidence or perhaps some other Cast Member either made it up or thought they saw it happen in a hallucination for working too hard. Still, whichever way it goes remains a mystery for us. But I’m afraid this isn’t the main concern right now.” Fye holds the clicker on the mouse down and drags the cursor up and to the left of the 3D map, showing an attraction that looks an awful lot like the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. He then says, “We believe that the main source of the sudden increase of dream power is in this building!”

“It can’t be…” Rachel quietly gasps to her horror.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Rachel?” Fye notices.

“Oh, nothing. It’s not important.”

“Most Disney fans and ‘Dreamfinder and Figment history enthusiasts’ believe that the original version of this Journey Into Imagination ride, named after your adventures, was the best version this attraction has had, and for what reason?”

“What? I’m dying to know!” Figment shakes with suspense.

“Some believed it to be because it matched what we sense in our imagination, while most fans believed it because of the previous presence of the Disney version of Dreamfinder and Figment, even though the real ones haven’t been around in almost a century that time. And with Dreamfinder and Figment’s presence, the guests at EPCOT would leave the park filled with dream power and vast possibilities. But there’s more to this than those facts.”

“Gah! Where is it?” Dr. Channing grunts in the background.

“It seems that within the past hour, the average streak of dream power has shot up tremendously than normal. We’re still not sure why, but believe it or not this isn’t the first time it’s happened.”

“It isn’t? When else did it happen?” Figment asks.

“Here is a chart that has been recorded approximately fifteen years ago with almost the same results as today, two years after the original version with the Disney version of Dreamfinder and Figment had closed for refurbishment.” Fye says, as he pops open yet another panel of a much older chart. “The results of today’s phenomenon seems to have not have reached as high as the last one, but it doesn’t look far off. Last time, however, when we recorded the events that had happened, it nearly broke off the pressure scales and shut down our entire electrical supply for a month!”

“Wowie-wow! Did anyone see that happen?”

“God, I hope not.” Rachel said with a moan in her tone. Her friends stare at her for a brief amount of seconds as her forehead starts to sweat, her eyes bulging, and her arms shaking. Rachel had to come up with something quick before the rest of her body tenses up and gives her emotions away. She says, “In…case something bad happened, I hope nobody had seen it. I mean that would be just terrible, am I right?”

“Actually, we did see something happen.” said Fye in a grave tone.

“What? No, you didn’t. Did you? What’d you see?”

“Rachel?” Dreamfinder speaks up with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Rachel asks.

“Well, for one thing, you’re shaking like gelatin during an earthquake.” said Alex.

“Oh! See, this is how I react when I react to something…big! Big like this thing going on back then and now. You know?”

“Mm…I don’t know, Rachel.” Dreamfinder said with his blue eyes squinted with suspicion.

“What, you thinking I’m lying?”

“Likely. But right now, I’m a little more interested about learning what has happened fifteen years ago. What exactly happened there, Fye?”

“Gah! Stupid test tubes!” Dr. Channing shouts with frustration as the small glass tubes fall down and break behind the group.

“Actually, I don’t really know how to say what happened.” Fye said, ignoring Dr. Channing and the sound of breaking glass. “But we do have a copy of security footage from Disney saved in our documents that’s given us and idea of what must have happened. Let me pull that out real quick.”

Fye clicks onto a program on the desktop with an icon of a golden badge over an old-fashion camera from the 1920s-30s and opens up a playlist of footage. The list looks like it is either organized by the earliest to latest date or from least to most important. As Fye scrolls down toward the bottom for the appropriate date, Rachel’s anxiety builds up. She takes a couple of steps back and hides half of her body behind Figment, feeling the need to abruptly grab onto his arm to keep her hands busy. Fye finally finds the date he is looking for, clicks on it and opens the video the file contained.

“Here is what was happening inside the entrance lobby of the original Journey Into Imagination ride being refurbished for the first time at about…12:30pm to 1:00pm. Now watch this.”

Everyone waits quietly for the video footage to continue. The suspense of what’s to come from the past is killing them all, especially for Rachel. She stands there motionless, speechless, and almost unconscious with her eyes staring at the screen without even blinking. Whatever is on that screen looks a lot familiar to her than anything else in the world. The question is…what is it?

The interior of the lobby looks like there are tarps covering a couple benches and the railing for guest lines to form. Everything in there is supposed to be revamped into a new and different view of what the attraction to be like, much to the dismay of the results by the multitudes of die-hard Disney fans. 

Suddenly, the video shows a small peachy blob with a hint of brown on the top and some yellow-orange within the middle section. Fye enhances the resolution of the video for a clearer view. That peachy blob with the brown top and yellow-orange body is actually a little girl! She is coming out of the right side of the Omnimovers’ entrance into the attraction where the animatronics Dreamfinder and Figment would greet them…only she was running. She was running out of the building faster and faster until she was out of view from the security camera when suddenly… WHOOSH! Something has passed by the camera unseen, but has left behind a screeching noise as well as a wavelength of unseen motion that’s caused the visual of the camera to go fuzzy.

“Whoa! What was that?” Figment exclaims to his shock.

“We’re not exactly sure,” said Fye, “but there’s more of what happened right after that little girl ran out of the building.” Fye clicks onto another video file on the computer and opens it with the time being 12:57pm to the latest 1:05pm. “Here we are. Now watch this.”

The video starts as Fye clicks on the “play” button. This is happening just outside of the Journey Into Imagination attraction and on the way past the Land Pavilion. Compared to the last video, this one is showing a much clearer view of the area, making it easier to tell how old the young child running is, about five or six years. The little girl is tremendously fast for her young age. She is running desperately past all of the guests and Cast Members until she accidentally trips down forward to the ground. The longer Rachel is watching this, the faster and shorter her breaths are coming out. To see this little girl running for her life has somehow clutched her heart of out great fear. The girl is turned over with her backside down, her arms and held down on each side of her head, and even more horrifically, the girl starts screaming in great terror.

“Yikes!” Figment exclaims.

“Oh dear!” said Dreamfinder. “The poor thing is scared out her wits. But…what is she screaming at? She looks like she’s being pinned, but there’s nothing on top of her.”

“Yeah. Still, whatever she’s been running and screaming about…it’s gotta be intense!” said Alex.

“That’s only half of the worst of it.” said Fye, grimly.

“Half?” Dreamfinder blurts out.

“Indeed. At the time, we didn’t know what the poor girl was screaming about or what has caused the first camera to go off after she ran outside. But over the next five years, when camera technology was becoming more advanced than before, we’ve used a variety of them to see if it’s possible there was some kind of creature or ghost there that may have been haunting her that day and if we could see it. Here are the results.”

As Fye rewinds the video to the beginning, he clicks a button that says “Infrared” on it. The visuals of the area the girl landed at have become colorfully distorted. When it’s like this, every human body or other living entity is layered with a light green coating, followed by a yellow to red interior detecting any heat stored in the body. At least it was still easy to see the girl doing what she was doing in the film. However, this didn’t exactly happen the same way as Fye had just previously shown them. In this version of the film, the girl was running away from something. And what should be following her but a giant blob of orange and red swiftly chasing the poor girl from the Journey Into Imagination attraction. Once down, the creature dominantly pins her to the ground. Unexpectedly, Rachel gives out a loud, but brief shriek. The sudden shock of what seems to be a floating demonic monster towering over the girl has everyone looking back at Rachel and questioning her reason for shrieking in their minds aside from understanding the feeling of fearing for the little girl. Rachel backs away farther and quicker than before, away from her friends. She turns away and gasps fast and heavily. Not wanting to see or hear what else is happening in the computer screen. The girl in the computer starts screaming again as the monster’s aura shoots out in all directions like an explosion and the audio reveals a distorted laughter of the monster coming from the speakers. Rachel falls to her knees with her back turned against her friends and her eyes tightly shut, holding back whatever tears seem to be coming out. The pain of the child being massively tortured by that thing is killing her inside.

“ENOUGH!” Rachel finally shouts, gaining everyone’s attention back. “…I’ve seen enough!”

“Rachel, are you—” Dreamfinder tries to ask.

“I’m fine! Please, just…I’m fine.”

“Fye?” Dreamfinder turns to his old friends and signals him to cut out.

Fye understands his old friend’s gesture and turns off the audio. The video concludes, leaving the image of the ghastly beast pinning the little girl below her. Dreamfinder walks over to Rachel’s side and picks her up to her feet with his hands firmly pressed on her shoulders. He feels Rachel trembling and hears her whimpering out of fear. It was a very familiar kind of fear to him. It’s not as powerful as he once had before, but it’s not far off.

“Rachel, are you okay?” Dreamfinder asks.

But Rachel doesn’t say a word. She has gone far too deep in her unexpected pain to listen or feel any comfort from either Dreamfinder or anyone else, just more and more pain. 

“Sick!” Alex gasps with a small twinge of excitement, awing at the sight of the monster in the footage.

“What the heck is that?” Figment asks.

“A monster, that’s what it is!”

“Where did it come from?”

“We believe it came from inside the Imagination Pavilion at the park.” Fye answers. “We’re not sure of what it is, but given the sight of that poor girl being tackled by it, it’s obvious that it’s very dangerous! It hasn’t been seen anywhere else in Epcot or shown itself before or since. It just suddenly showed up. In fact…” Fye readjusts his glasses and squints saying, “now that I look at it, it kind of resembles the form of a nightmare…just like the Doubtfinder from a year ago!”

“Doubtfinder?” Rachel asks, weakly.

“I was possessed by my own fear last year called the ‘Doubtfinder’ when Figment and I first came to the twenty-first century and saw all this new technology.” said Dreamfinder with a grim tone. “It was really more of a culture shock kind of fear. But it’s been taken cared, Rachel. Really! And because of this, we were able to bring dream power to the academy and learn more about its potential. Right everyone?”

“He’s right!” said Figment. “If Dreamfinder had given into the Doubtfinder completely, I would’ve been gone forever!”

“That’s not good.” said Alex as he recognized the dangers for Figment compared to what almost happened previously in the Deshandjah Desert. Putting it aside, he asks, “Was there anything in there that may have caused this?”

“Well…” said Fye, as he strokes his chin. “I have heard rumors of a small swarm of tiny little light balls of aura that have been inhabiting in the lower levels of the attraction who are said to resemble actual sparks of imagination and form into anything a person with imagination tells it to change into! I’m not sure if the rumor is true, but if it is then they might have also been there the day that girl got chased by whatever that creature is. We’ve wanted to talk to this girl about what happened for research, but we never got to find out who the girl was or where she lived. So this whole matter still stands into one of the greatest mysteries of our time.”

“Ah! Here we are!” Dr. Channing interrupts. “Everyone! Come see this!” Everyone, including Rachel being lead by Dreamfinder’s leverage, huddles over to the desk as Dr. Channing pulls out something big. It’s fully covered by a dull colored sheet with a full excess of cloth draping towards the ground. He lifts the covered object to the table and says, “I’ve been meaning to show you this when I first found it, Mr. Fye, but out of my excitement I wanted to give a more elaborate explanation of it out of my research. And since the Dreamfinder and Figment are here as well, I figured ‘why not?’”

“What is it?” Fye asks.

“You’ve just said just now that the rumor of the ‘tiny sparks’ is believed to exist within that building in the park. Well, you’re just about to see for yourself! BEHOLD!” Dr. Channing pulls the sheet away from the object; only the object looks more like a small capsule than anything else. Small little lights are blinking separately on the top and lowers rims of the capsule, the surface of the middle is made of half-inch glass, and inside this capsule is a small glowing orb of light floating in midair with its light orangey-pink colored aura illuminating within. Other than it floating in place, it stood there motionless close to the capsule floor. Astonished, everyone gasps in awe. Just imagine, a real live spark of imagination in person! Everybody is filling up with a sense of joy and bliss at the sight of this little spark. Rachel, however, is standing where she is, frozen with horror. Her eyes grow wider and wider at the sight like it was nothing she had seen before…or has she? “A living embodiment of dream power itself!” Dr. Channing introduces.

Watching the little spark speechless and useless, Rachel can somehow see a grim and pale gloominess in the tiny little creature, if one should call it that. She could have sworn hearing the spark murmuring quietly in what it looks like its agony.

 

Mama…Mama…


	33. Chapter 33

Around the corner, Yuna finds her long lost sister walking through the hall. Runa is just arriving at her classroom door for her next subject, carrying her sketchbook and colored pencils over her chest and in her arms. Yuna peeks behind the corner in her human form watching her sister walk a familiar looking walk. She walks just like mother used to walk, Yuna thought to herself. She has her mother’s beauty and her father’s eyes. She’s about half a foot shorter than Yuna is. Everything Yuna can see in her would only seem completely unreal to Runa. If Runa opens that door and enters her class, Yuna may never get the chance to go and talk to her suppose Rachel and her friends finish up what they’re doing elsewhere.

Taking a deep breath, Yuna walks out from the corner and slowly approaches Runa. Her hair is dewing with sweat, her lips are quivering without notice, and she has her hands rubbing together uncontrollably. The only things that are making continue forth are her legs as if they each have a mind of their own. Still, Yuna is determined to keep calm with the most positive attitude she can make.

“E-excuse me?” said Yuna in attempts to keep a straight face.

“Huh? Oh, hello!” said Runa, enthusiastically. “Where’d you come from?”

“Outside…I’m observing the academy. I feel that I may sign up and attend here.”

“Oh, that’s great! You’ll love it here! The teachers here really know a lot more than most professors outside do and the students here are really nice! And you can’t even imagine how incredible our events are when we showcase our projects. You’ll get a lot of recognition that way for your career plan.”

“I surely hope so.”

“Wow…!”

“What is it?”

“I love your hair! And your dress is beautiful!” Runa compliments in a kindly embarrassed tone.

“Oh, thank you!” Yuna giggles. “You look beautiful, too! And your hair is gorgeous! Is it natural?”

“Since birth, I suppose. Thank you!”

“So…what class are you taking right now?”

“Statistics. Not really my strong suit, but it’s interesting all the same.”

“Nice!”

“Say…you look somewhat familiar.” Runa comments with a squint in her eyes. “Have I seen you before?”

“I…I should hope so, actually…I’m—” Yuna starts, but gets cut off at the sound of the door opening and a student calling out.

“Hey Runa, class is about to begin.” said the student, holding the door open. “You coming in?”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” said Runa. As the door closes, she turns back to Yuna only to find that she’s disappeared entirely.

What a queer woman, Runa thought. One minute she was talking to another woman, and then for a split she turns her head and returns to no one in front of her. She didn’t even get to ask the stranger’s name. Seeing how she doesn’t have enough time to think or search about for this person, Runa quickly turns around for the classroom door. Upon holding onto the doorknob, a small slip of paper brushed under her chin. She looks down and notices a small folded-up paper sticking out of her sketchbook. Strange, she thought, that wasn’t there before. She pulls out the paper from the book and unfolds it. Inside is a note written in a delicate, but precise font. It says:

 

“Forgive me, my dear sister. I wish I could tell you everything that has happened. Right now, I must help Rachel find her path in life. I hope to see you again someday soon in peace to catch up. All my love, Yuna.”

 

“Yuna?” said Runa to her confusion. 

But then it occurred to her. She quickly opens her sketchbook and rapidly flips through the pages to a certain picture she has drawn. When she finds the picture she was looking for, she sees an attempted, but not finished colored drawing similar-looking to Yuna. That was the moment Runa began to understand. The strange woman Runa had just talked to is her sister! And of all times, she’s come to see her in good health! Runa quickly jerks her head around searching frantically for her supposed sister, hoping to finally get some answers of her past. But there is no one here. With a defeated faith beginning to build up inside her, Runa turns away from the hallway, enters the classroom, and closes the door. But just before the last creek of the door is pulled shut, Runa suddenly hears a faint weeping around the corner. She believes it’s her sister. If only her teacher could give her more time alone, but her education comes first, then her personal problems. Runa gently closes the door, hoping, but not receiving, one last look of her dear elder sister.

********************************************************************************************************

“My word!” Dreamfinder exclaims as he eagerly leans closer to the little spark in the capsule. “Is that really a spark of imagination?”

“In the flesh…flurry…lit…whatever it’s made of.” Dr. Channing stutters.

“Is it really made of dream power?” Figment asks.

“I believe it may be. I never had much luck in finding evidence to prove it is what this little guy is before, but after the events of the Doubtfinder and the overflow of dream power in the academy, I was able to test and compare the components between the two and found that this may be a spark of imagination made out of pure dream power!”

“And you said you can’t get answers based on luck.” Figment quotes.

“Nigel, where did you find this?” Fye asks.

“I found it wondering astray within the interior of the Imagination Pavilion in Epcot fifteen years ago when we last investigated for the little girl and the monster.” Channing replies. “I figured that since we couldn’t find the girl to get some answers out of her, this would be just about the only clue we could get out of it. And what I found is that it’s been fifteen years since I found and it’s still in its current state. I mean, it still looks as new and fresh as the day it was born.”

“How would you know that?” Alex asks.

“Science, cat boy. Science.”

“Okay, will everyone stop calling me ‘cat boy?’ It’s very demeaning!”

“Oh, uh…sorry, Mr. Wavers. I meant no disrespect.”

Out of great curiosity, Figment looks closer at the little spark floating inside the capsule. His big yellow eyes grew bigger and distorted against the glass, hoping to get a reaction out of it. The spark would not budge. It continues to float there completely detached from the world outside of the capsule. So Figment tries to make some silly faces, move his head in different angles, and perform some summersaults. Still nothing. He can only hear a small puffy cough come out of the spark resembling a baby’s.

“I hate to sound negative,” said Figment with grave concern for the spark, “but he doesn’t look so happy in that thing. He looks all gloomy and sad and pale and closed up.”

“Yes, indeed.” said Dreamfinder, realizing the unseen emotion going on. “How long has this spark been in here for?”

“For about as long as I’ve had it.” said Dr. Channing. “But don’t worry, I let it out of the capsule to move freely while I watch it and do some tests.”

“Mama…mama…” the little spark murmured to itself, seldom heard by anyone.

But Rachel can hear it. She can hear the tiny little spark whimper and cry silently. The sight of that poor little thing trapped within a glass and metal container by a man she hates more than words can say whatever that reason may be. Breathless and frozen, Rachel just stood there. All the voices but the spark’s that are talking aloud are beginning to deafen her ears and turn into the sound of swishes and whooshes and blurs. 

“Hey, do you hear that?” Figment asks with his eyes lit up.

“Hear what?” said Alex.

“I think I just heard this little guy talk.”

“Talk?” Channing gasps.

“Figment, you can understand him?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, a little.” Figment answers as he pushes his seldom-seen ears against the capsule’s glass for a better reading.

“Of course!” Dreamfinder’s expression beams up with a snap of his fingers. “They must be made out of the same material! That thing is made of dream power just as Figment is! Whatever secret language imaginary friends must have, we may not be able to understand it.”

“Not yet, Dreamfinder. But I can teach you how! As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know we have our own language.”

“Quick! What’s it saying?” Dr. Channing shouts with great cheer.

“Hmm…It sounds like it’s saying… ‘Mama?’ ”

“Mama?” Dreamfinder reacts with confusion.

“I guess whatever made this little guy was its mother and it wants to go back to her.” Alex guesses.

“This is brilliant!" Channing cheers. "An interpersonal communication between two abstractly formed beings made straight from an abstract component! Well…one of them being formally abstract.” Channing blushes with guilt seeing as how Dreamfinder had already turned his spark of inspiration into a little purple dragon. “Sorry, Figment.”

“Aw, that’s okay, Doc!” said Figment with glee. “Being a little puffy ball of dream power has its perks, too.”

“Of course.”

“Rachel, you’ve got to come and see this!” Dreamfinder exclaims with ebullience.

There! At the very mention of her name, the little spark slowly perks up and looks straight at Rachel. It studies her face from a distance very carefully. There is something familiar about this girl, the little spark must be thinking. But what? The presence of this strange girl doesn’t look like much…except for the eyes. Rachel’s eyes are light brown. That’s a pretty color for a girl. So is her hair. And it’s long, too! Why does she look so scared? I’m the one who is kept prisoner in this weird glass tube. She should be excited like everyone else. Wait a minute! The spark looks closer at Rachel and realizes something about her. In a flash, it pictures a dark atmosphere with a little girl in a little yellow dress, decorated with tiny pink and orange flowers, standing there alone. She, too, has long brown hair and light brown eyes. But don’t most people? Yes, they do, but there is something in those eyes that seems to have caught this spark’s attention. The girl’s eyes shimmered like stars, yet they glitter more brightly when they are filling up with tears. That’s when it finally hit it. The little spark knows this girl!

“Mama? Mama! My Mama!” The spark shouts.

Furiously, the sparks starts banging against the glass in its capsule like a pinball machine! Everyone jumps back at the reaction. The shouting coming from the little spark sounds like ranting grunts, but only Figment and, strangely, Rachel can hear it shout as clear as English.

“My Mama! My Mama! My Mama! My Mama!” the spark shouts repeatedly.

“Whoa!” Alex shouts.

“What’s happening?” Dreamfinder asks loudly.

“I-I-I-I don’t know!” Channing replies. “It’s never reacted like this before! I think I’d better put it away now.”

“NO!” Rachel shouts. Ignoring her, Channing covers the capsule with the sheet and puts it back underneath the table. Everyone else starts staring at Rachel again with great concern. For some reason, Rachel has been extra moody and emotional than normal. Even Dreamfinder has come to realize that there’s something wrong. First it’s the academy, Dr. Channing, the videos, and now this little spark. Maybe bringing Rachel to the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus was a bad idea after all, Dreamfinder thought.

With her gut filled and tingling with fear, Rachel makes a sprint back out of the laboratory and into light of day. Dreamfinder, being a careful host as possible, starts running after her with Figment and Alex chasing behind him. Only Fye and Dr. Channing are left behind curious of what just happened with the little spark.

“Nigel—” Fye started, but Channing cuts him off.

“Now don’t worry, Mr. Fye! Everything’s under control now.”

“But that’s just it! If that spark is really the spark I think it is, then even a small piece of dream power like this shouldn’t be cooped up inside that thing. I think you ought to release it.”

“R-r-release it?! Mr. Fye, try to understand. I really feel that I’m getting close to finally understand the basic aspects of life in dream power formulation! You said in the beginning that I have the total freedom to use whatever material I find so long as it has to do with the research I’ve been scheduled to work on!”

“Yes, I did, but I didn’t say anything about keeping live things imprisoned, known or unknown. Especially since how long you’ve kept this poor thing in that capsule all this time all right under my nose and without my permission! What were you thinking?”

“Mr. Fye, please! Just give me more time to look into all this and then I’ll show you—”

“Nigel!” Fye shouts, silencing Dr. Channing by thrusting his cane to the tile floor. Then in a calm manner he continues. “As a friend, I’m asking you to set this spark free in peace and let it become the spark of inspiration to a more deserving dreamer. I don’t want to force you to release it while I am part of the academy’s staff, too.”

“…More deserving dreamer, Fye?” the expression on Channing’s face wrinkled with this newfound irritation, making him feel agitated and testy. His hands turn into fists and his foot is tapping vigorously with a heat of rage building up inside of him.

“Now, Nigel. What I meant was—”

“MORE deserving dreamer?! When I was an apprentice to my last boss, I was rejected because of my ambitions to broaden the horizons and fly past the limitations of the real world and he said to me those very same words of how I’m not a more deserving dreamer than he and everyone else is!”

“But Nigel—” Dr. Channing cuts him off again as he starts pushing Fye out the door. 

“If YOU think that I’m not a more deserving dreamer as the Dreamfinder and all the students in this blasted school simply because I am keeping something for research, then you’ve lost the plot with me! We’ve made a contract and so long as that contract stands, I am going to continue my research without everybody questioning me or telling how to do my work. And I’m going to keep this bloody tiny dot for as long as I want even if it takes me another fifteen years to figure it out how the sparks of imagination work! So if I were you, you old goat, I’d stay out of the way and leave me to my business!”

Channing forcefully pushes Fye out the laboratory door, making to old sprite fall to his knees, and with a control panel from the inside the two giant doors slide together and slams the room shut. The slamming of the doors echo throughout the hallways that a few of the doors outside the lab open up with few students peering out to find what the commotion was. As Fye struggles to get back on his feet with his cane he sees the students at the doors with their jaws dropped with shock. What they were able to get out of it what that someone was just yelling at Mr. Fye and then pushed him into the ground and left him there, which is the best assumption of what just happened. As Fye got to his feet, he gives them all an assuring smile.

“Mr. Fye, are you okay?” said one of the students.

“Don’t worry, students.” said Fye, trying to remain positive with a gentle tone. “Everything is alright. Just had a little accident.” The students return to their classrooms with the doors closed. When silence has filled the room again, Fye turns his head to Dr. Channing’s laboratory and walks away slowly. He feels a strain on his knees and back with every step he takes, but he didn’t care. So long as he is still able to move, it’s all right.

“Oh dear, that didn’t go quite well at all.”

********************************************************************************************************

Ignoring her friends’ shouting to her in a panic, Rachel runs over to the nearest water fountain and stops to take a drink. The shock of the security videos and the little spark imprisoned in that little capsule has increased her blood pressure sky high! By the time Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex catches up to her she finishes guzzling down that water with a huge gulp and pants very heavily.

“Rachel!” Figment calls out.

“I…I needed that.” Rachel pants.

“What’s wrong now?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Yeah, you were really losing yourself in there.” said Alex, pointing out the obvious. “What’s up?”

“I just…I just…” she stutters “I just don’t like seeing demonic things capturing helpless children and weird alien creatures being held captive in a tiny glass tube under a madman’s influence.”

“Dr. Channing, a mad man?” Figment questions.

“YES! A MADMAN!” she shouts. “All of you; you-you guys saw how horrible it was to watch that girl being traumatized by that thing, suppose it was actually real. And Figment, you saw how sad and droopy that tiny little thing was inside that capsule, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did!”

“Then I don’t see what else you guys are worried about. I’m frightened beyond compare right now and I’ve been like this all day without end since we came here. I’m sorry! It was supposed to be a happy day for Alex getting into the academy, which I am happy, but this all turned out to be some freak out of a day and I’m sorry! I just want to leave this place forever, never look back, and forget this day ever happened!”

“…No.” said Dreamfinder, shaking his head slowly in a solemn tone. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” she asks.

“I wanted to share with you a place that’s held a very special spot in my heart since the beginning of my journey into imagination with Figment, but all it’s done for you is cause you a lot of pain. I don’t know what’s going on or what’s been going on with you today but I should have at least considered your feelings and not have forced you to come along. So with that…I’m so sorry.”

“Whoa. Really?”

“Of course! I love this academy, but I hate to see you or any of my friends and family feel the worst of anything in life.”

“So…you forgive me for everything that I said in the Chairman’s office and all of my bad behavior today?” Rachel asks, hoping to be filled up with hope.

“Yeah, Dreamfinder!” said Figment. “Do you forgive her? You know she didn’t mean any harm. Not this time, at least.”

“Mmm…I’m still thinking about that.” Dreamfinder replies. “But right now with Alex being accepted into the academy, I want to make sure he gets a good place to stay.”

“Fair enough.” Rachel shrugs happily.

“Really, Dreamfinder,” Alex says, “you’ve done more than enough for me in getting me here.”

“We know.” said Figment with a big smirk on his crocodile face. “But we still want to help you get comfortable here both at the academy and everything else on the Earth.”

“Figment’s right!” said Dreamfinder in a kind and humble tone. “And if the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus can’t help with that, then we’ll help you find a good place to live until your studies here are complete. Now let’s go find Fye and the Chairman and see what we can do.”

“Thanks, you guys! You’re the best!” Alex exclaims. By now, he is about to be the happiest Katkin who has ever lived.

With a hand around Alex’s shoulder and Figment on the far other side of Alex, Dreamfinder leads his young friend away from the water fountain. But only Rachel remains in place.

“Are you coming?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Actually,” Rachel responds, “I’m kind of in the need to find a bathroom somewhere from all that water, so I’ll…I’ll catch up to you in a bit.”

“Alright, but don’t get lost. If you do, you can always ask a security guard to help you.”

“I will.”

“See you soon, Rach!” Figment calls out with a wave and flies off to Alex’s side.

As Rachel watches Dreamfinder and the other head off through the hallway, Rachel’s slightly happy expression disappears slowly. The coldness she has had felt in Dr. Channing’s lab is swiftly returning in her veins, resulting to her hands and feet getting cold. Her stomach is gurgling and churning with great nerve. It may be the water talking. She finds a bathroom just thirty feet from where she stands. And what should be beside that bathroom but Dr. Channing’s lab itself. Saying nothing, she enters the girl’s bathroom alone to think for a while.

********************************************************************************************************

The bathroom is colored purely silver like a moonbeam. The bathroom stalls are colored in blue and brighter as they reach up and nearly touch the ceiling. The sinks are made of marble with stainless steel faucets and a curved pump shaped like an upside-down “J.” The tiles below her are colored with gray and black speckled tone to contrast with the walls. And the lights in the ceiling house two delicate art deco lamps. Everything in this bathroom is perfectly well made for the feminine gender.

Unexpectedly, as Rachel enters the bathroom, she finds Yuna crouched in a corner of the room crying.

“Yuna!” Rachel exclaims. She runs over to her friend and kneels beside her with her heart beating and aching fast as Yuna continues to weep. “Yuna, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, hello Rachel. I’m fine.” Yuna sniffs.

“Did you find Runa?”

“I did.”

“What did she say? Did you tell her you’re her sister?”

“I never got the chance to tell her. I never got to tell her my name at all.”

“What? Why? What happened?”

“We had a nice short conversation, but when she turned her head to go to her class…I just left.”

“You left? Why?”

“I didn’t want to indulge into her life all suddenly. Not right now at least. All I did in the end was leave a note in her book telling her who I am and hoping that I may see her again once everything falls over and works out well in the end.”

“Oh…well okay. I guess…I guess that’ll work for the time being.”

“She looks just like our mother.”

“Really?”

“My mother’s beauty, her hair, my father’s eyes and lips.”

“She is a beautiful girl. I’m kind of jealous now how she’s not my sister. You’re lucky.”

“Thank you, Rachel. You are very kind.” said Yuna with a smile on her small pink lips. She takes a handkerchief out, wipes away hers and smears a little of her eye makeup in the process. “So what are you doing in here all alone?”

“A series a horrific flashbacks on Disney’s security footage and an imprisoned sprite of aura held by Dr. Channing.” Rachel plainly replies in her discomfort.

“Oh no…”

“I was so close to crossing the border of sanity into hysteria that time. I was crying, audibly traumatized, and on my knees that were too weak for me to stand with. It’s a wonder how I survived not telling the truth right there. And to make matters worse, that little spark of imagination recognizes me and I didn’t do a thing to help it at all!”

“And you don’t know what to do about it now, right?”

“Oh, I know what I’m going to do. I lied to Dreamfinder and the others that I needed to go to the bathroom—well, actually I kind of need to go anyway because I drank a lot of water just to help get past this fear stroke I’m having, but I didn’t tell them what I’m about to do…all I’m saying is that it’s going to be the sneakiest thing I’ll ever do in my life.”

“Really? You’re really going to do that?”

“I have to! It’s the least I can do since I’ve done nothing for Uncle Eli on my end for so long.”

“Ah, so you still remember then.”

“You know of it?” Rachel says with a slight jump pumped in her body.

“I’ve always known.” said Yuna calmly “I watched it all happen.”

“Well, at any rate, whether I like it or not I’ve still got to do it. He didn’t deserve to be taken away and neither does Dreamfinder or Figment or that little spark. Believe me, for what’s it worth, I’m doing it for them.”

“Shall I come with you?”

“You can come only if you hide yourself in my necklace again and wait until I need you. The last thing I want is for more people to get involved in this.”

“Very well.” Yuna morphs into her sprite form and returns to Rachel blue necklace. Just to be safe, Rachel tucks the stone under her shirt with Yuna inside. Lifting herself to her feet, Rachel enters one of the stalls and closes the door behind her.

********************************************************************************************************

A knock on the door with a window with painted letters saying “Prof. Fye, Senior Executive in Board of Directors” is heard from within Fye’s office, but there is no Fye to open it for Dreamfinder, Figment and Alex Wavers. Figment turns the doorknob gently and it realizes that it isn’t locked. Perhaps Fye is inside, but is very busy with catching up on documents. They open the door and find nobody. Not even behind the desk.

“Oh, it looks like Fye’s not back yet.” said Dreamfinder.

“Perhaps he’s still with the Doc.” said Figment. “We never got to thank him for showing his laboratory to us.”

“Yeah…”

“What’s that look?” Alex asks.

Dreamfinder sits onto Fye’s chair with his eyes fixed into the middle distance and he’s stroking his hair from mustache to the tip of his gingered beard. He feels some sweat forming in his head, so he takes of his top hat to cool off. “You know something? I think Rachel may have had the right idea about feeling suspicious around Dr. Channing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I mean at first, I thought she may have been over exaggerating or paranoid about him, but once I saw Channing take out that capsule with that little spark inside…I don’t know.”

“You know what you’re doing?” Figment asks.

“What?”

“Over-thinking. But for once, I think that’s okay. I was starting to get a weird vibe out of him, too.”

“He’s cuckoo is what he is!” Alex blurts out. “I may never have known any teachers or professors or anyone college related back in Iyrilia pretty much except for Howard Fitz, but even I can tell how shady a man can be. Especially men like Dr. Channing.”

“But what if we’re wrong? That’s another question.” Dreamfinder points out. “If Dr. Channing is really not as bad, then what will it say about Rachel?”

“That she’s not a good judge of character?” Figment guesses.

“Be serious, Figment. And even if she were, how would that be possible? She was able to tell from the beginning of how bad King KaZing was back in Fillidore.” 

“King KaZing?” said Alex, lifting an eyebrow.

“Before we came to Iyrilia,” Dreamfinder says, “we randomly traveled over to this place called Fillidore and brought a rejected princess to overthrow her father, King KaZing, who was secretly cruel to her and his people.”

“Now I’ve heard everything.”

“I know Rachel wasn’t really being herself for the past day and a half—no, a whole month since she first mentioned this ‘Yuna’ person, but I just don’t know what to do with her anymore. Either she’s not as I had hoped she would be or…”

“Or?” Figment drawls, hoping to get the rest of Dreamfinder’s sentence out.

“I don’t know. That’s all I can think of right now.”

“If you ask me, Dreamfinder, I think there must be something triggering Rachel into thinking of something that must have been haunting her for a long time and then bringing her here into the academy has made it far worse than before.”

“That could be it. I mean, she did look really frightened back in the lab. She screamed. And I think she started to cry, too! You think maybe we’ve—uh, I’ve been a little rash. Heck, slapping the Chairman and shouting at staff was really uncalled for, but everything else…well, maybe I’ve done pretty badly in bringing her here without really realizing it. That’s settled!” Dreamfinder slaps both of his hands on the handles of Fye’s chair and shoots straight up to his feet to a confirmation. “I’m going to apologize again, forgive her for what she’s done today, and give her one more chance.”

“Atta boy, Dreamfinder!” Figment cheers. “You have a good heart!”

“A good heart as big as Rachel, if you know what I mean.” Alex snickers with his arms folded.

“For your information, Alex,” Dreamfinder starts with a smirk on his face as he walks towards the door with everyone else behind him, “not once have I thought about my feelings for Rachel since the desert scenario we had and I’ve become fully content for not stressing over it. I’d like to keep it that way, please.”

“Whatever you say, lover.”

********************************************************************************************************

Rachel peeks out of the bathroom door. Nobody is out, so nobody can see her. They all must be midway through to near end of class time, which doesn’t give Rachel much time to do what she intends to do. But just before she gets out, she stops to see Dr. Channing quietly exiting the lab through the sliding doors. They’ve opened by just about fifteen or twenty feet in opening length, which makes the doors about halfway opened. With only one person going in and out of that lab, it probably shouldn’t require much energy to pull the entire door open.

Dr. Channing heads off into the opposite direction of the girl’s bathroom with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand and a small document of papers in the other. As the professor leaves, the sliding doors are beginning to close again. This is the perfect time to get into the lab. Rachel rushes out of the girl’s bathroom and dashes in between the sliding doors. By the time she’s crossed, only a small piece of the cloth of her mahogany long jacket gets caught in between the closed door. Rachel pulls her jacket with all her might until the end caught started ripping off. 

Once out, Rachel falls back on her rear into the ground surrounded by a complete darkness. The lights are turned off, so there is no telling where the light switch is. She can’t even tell if she’s next to the long line of large capsules or the side with the strange blue synchronizers. All of a sudden, Rachel’s necklace began to glow as Yuna, in her sprite form, appears back out and float about in Rachel’s presence. The glowing in her aura is the only source of light there is right now. Where one light glows, the rest of the darkness should be converted to light, too.

“Oh, it’s dark in here!” Yuna exclaims.

“Never mind that! See if you can find the lights.” said Rachel in a strict tone as she tries to get to her feet without fear of hitting anything along the way. 

Yuna swoops up, down and all around the dark laboratory in pursuit to find the light switch. She bumps into some unseen large objects tips over the small ones along the way. Finally, Yuna reaches one of the walls and searches it intensely. On the way, she feels a tiny box sticking out about and inch or two from the wall with a tiny flicker sticking out. With the tail end of her sprite self, Yuna flips the switch and the lights turn on. To Rachel, who can now see what’s around her, this empty lab looks a lot more frightening to be in than it is with people in it.

“It’s like standing in a modernized version of Frankenstein’s lab.” Rachel quivers. “That robot over there would have been a perfect candidate for his monster.”

“Have courage, dear.” encouraged Yuna. She flies over to Rachel’s side and says, “It may not be the most kind way, but it’s all for a good cause.”

“For the little spark, at least. Now, help me find that capsule. I think I saw Channing hide it back under that table before I ran off.”

Under the table do Rachel and Yuna search. Remarkably, the table underneath is immensely crowded with other scientific materials: three old Bunsen Burners, boxes of graduated cylinders and beakers, a box of triple beam balances and a couple microscopes, and a box of safety gloves and goggles. Push and shove goes the boxes with every attempt to find the capsule, but it is nowhere in sight.

“Damn! Where is it?” Rachel pouts.

“Channing must have moved it before he left the room.” assumed Yuna.

“Well where else can we look? Except for the table, those giant tubes, and whatever the hell those other things are on the other side of the room, there isn’t really much of a hiding spot left.”

“Mama…Mama…” a sad moaning calls out. 

“Wait! Did you hear that Yuna?”

“Yes, I did!” said Yuna. “Where’s it coming from?”

“Hello?” Rachel calls out quietly, but not too quietly. “Where are you, little guy?”

“Mama! Mama! Mama!”

“It sounds like it’s under the table.” said Yuna.

“How can that be?” Rachel asks in bewilderment. “We’ve already searched everywhere underneath it and none of them is the capsule.”

“Well…what about that? The one with the sheet?”

“Sheet? Oh, that’s right! I saw Channing put a sheet over it. This might be it!”

Rachel quickly reaches for the object with the sheet and grabs a hold onto it. At the first touch she feels a vibrating sensation coming from through the sheet of cloth and from the glass tube and metal mechanical binding of the capsule. This, for sure, has to be the capsule that’s housing the little spark. Rachel pulls it out from under the table and gently lifts it up to the tabletop. Then Yuna pulls away the sheet and reveals the capsule with the little spark still inside it moaning miserably.

“Oh! It’s beautiful!” Yuna gasps with a loving tone in her voice. “Hello, little one.”

“My God…” Rachel mutters under her breath. “Never had I thought I’d be able to see one of these again.”

“Hmm…Mama?” the little spark slowly looks up. 

The sight of Rachel and Yuna standing right in front of it without the sheet covering it into darkness has its expression begin to perk up. But it’s Rachel the little spark seems to be the most interested in. It recognizes the girl’s face from before and apparently a long time ago. The girl’s light brown eyes sparkle at its aura light, enough for her to feel a great sense of pain for the imprisoned little spark and shed a tear. The sight of Rachel has made the spark flutter with joy rattle about within the glass.

“Mama!” the little spark shouts. “My Mama! My Mama!”

“Will you look at that?” Rachel smiles big. “It knows it’s me!”

“Aw Rachel, that’s so darling!” Yuna compliments. She may begin to start to cry all over again.

“Don’t worry, little guy. I’m gonna get you out of there. The question is…how?”

Desperate to find a button or a tiny switch to open the capsule, Rachel skims over the entire thing but finds no luck. Even the tiny flashing lights that are beaded around the metal binding don’t push down. It’s a wonder how the little spark is able to breath in, if it breathes.

“Mama?” the spark speaks.

“Be quiet!” Rachel shushes. “Someone might hear you.”

“Mama!”

“What are you doing in here?!” a harsh voice shouts.

Yuna quickly disappears back into the necklace as Rachel, gasping and shocked as ever, swiftly turns around towards the laboratory doors finding Dr. Channing standing before her returning from his quick errand. 

“What are you doing with my little spark?”


	34. Chapter 34

Dreamfinder, Figment, and Alex start walking out of Fye’s office and back into the hallways just in time for the students in the academy to finish their current classes. The space in the hallways is filling, turning into a sea of crowded students and imaginary friends old and new. Many of them who see Dreamfinder and Figment together in public are filling up with joy and inspiration. Among those students is Capri with her own friend, Spark who, from a distance, can see her great-great-great-grand uncle with his own imaginary friend, Figment. With Spark fluttering his little dragon wings behind Capri, she pushes through the student sea and rushes over to them in reunion.

“Hey, Figment! Uncle Dreamfinder!” Capri calls out.

“Hello, Capri!” Dreamfinder shouts back. “How was class?”

“Bark, arf, ruff! It was really tough!” Spark rhymes.

“Aw really?” Figment groans.

“It wasn’t so bad.” said Capri, trying to keep a positive look. “It could have been worse.”

“What was the subject?” Dreamfinder ask.

“Calculus. Oh by the way, I called my mom before class started and she says that you are all welcome to stay at our place for a while. I can even show you a couple of inventions Spark and I have been making while you were gone.”

“Splendid! Thank you, Capri! I’d love to see what you’ve been inventing.”

“SLUMBER PARTY!” Figment cheers.

“I-I can teach you Calculus.” Alex jumps in front of Capri, stuttering. “I’m…I’m really good at it.” It seems Alex is still having a little fling fluttering inside of him for Capri.

“Oh, really?” Capri perks up. “That’d be great!” 

Trying not to tease Alex, all Dreamfinder and Figment could do is chuckle quietly behind Capri and Spark. The young Katkin notices the chuckling and gives a strict smiling look at his playful friends and as Capri turns around, they stop laughing. For the most part, they try to keep a straight face but only Figment that’s ending up sniggering. 

“Now what is so funny, Figment?” Dreamfinder said, faking his charm from his hilarity.

“What? You were laughing, too!” Figment laughs.

“I most certainly did not!”

“Yes, you did!”

“I didn’t!”

“You did! Now stop denying it! You’re ruining all the fun.”

But in the midst of Capri’s giggling and Alex’s hidden blush, a male student comes through all the other students. By the looks of his running ability, he looks pretty desperate. His sweat is beginning to show, his hands are in fists, and his face is flushed and upset. He does not look too happy.

“Somebody call an ambulance!” the boy shouts and pants at the same time.

“What? What’s wrong?” Capri worryingly asks.

“It’s Mr. Fye! He’s on the ground and he can’t get up!”

“Fye?!” Dreamfinder shouts. “Where is he?”

“He’s at the Sherman Auditorium!” said the desperate student. “He was just passing by and when we came out he started fainting!”

“FYE!” Dreamfinder, fearing for his friend, dashes off to the auditorium with his friends following frantically behind him. Along the way, his top hat falls off and is collectively scooped back up by Figment.

“Dreamfinder! Wait up!” Figment shouts.

But Dreamfinder would not listen; he is much too worried over the fact of his sprite friend getting hurt, let alone not being able to stand up at his age! His scared heart is beating really fast and really hard inside his rib cage like an intense wrestling match. The closer he’s getting to Fye, if he can find the auditorium to begin with, the worse his panic attack is increasing tremendously high. With his friends and grandniece following behind him, they pass through many of the hallways and cut through so many corners. He sees his reflections on each side of the walls running alongside with him, each imitating the same expression on his face. His eyes are wide fear, his fists are hard as rocks, and the stomping of his running feet are as loud as a raging storm, echoing with every step.

They reach the Sherman Auditorium entrance together and just as that one despondent student said, they find a crowd of frightened students surrounding Fye and a pair of paramedics trying to help him. Figment and the Dreamfinder pushes through the crowd and they, to their horror of seeing him in pain, join Fye at his side. It seems that, thankfully, Fye has not fainted completely, but he does look a little pale in his bright shade of sky blue. Capri and Alex stand together with the students watching with the crowd as Spark hovers over them with the rest of the other flying imaginary friends.

“Fye!” Figment exclaims.

“Dreamfinder…Figment…you’ve come.” Fye pants.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine, my friends. It’s nothing serious, really.”

“Nothing ser— Fye, you’re not in a good condition!” Dreamfinder shouts. “How can falling and not being able to stand back up not be serious? Especially at you—” Dreamfinder drawls, stopping himself from the mistake of calling Fye old. He then asks, “How did this happen? Who did this to you?” But Fye says nothing. He lets the crowd of students wait in suspense for an answer he doesn’t seem to be comfortable to say. “Fye, it’s us!” Dreamfinder yells. “You can tell us anything. Think of the students!”

“It was…” Fye started, “It was Dr. Channing.”

“What?!”

“What? Oh gee! How can this be?” Spark asks in his traditional wording.

“I insisted him to set that little spark free after you and Ms. Rachel ran out, but he wouldn’t listen. He just pushed me out of his lab and closed the doors behind him in his anger. I was heading to Chairman Auckley’s office to report this, but I think my legs are not as limber as they used to be.”

Everyone is shocked. The students exchange their comments and murmuring to each other of the professor’s sudden assault. And to do this to this to an elder who is also an executive of the Board of Directors is just wrong. It’s just plain wrong! Capri’s eyes are locked at Dreamfinder’s. It’s clear to Dreamfinder that she must have had a great interest and respect for Dr. Channing and his devotion to the academy. Now, she is starting to feel not so sure if all that the professor has done is even true. Alex, seeing how broken Capri must be feeling inside, takes Capri’s hand and squeezes it firmly. 

“Okay, Mr. Fye Where does it hurt?” asked one of the paramedics.

“Down here…” said Fye weakly. “On the tibia to the knee, I believe.”

“Figment, will you stay with Fye for a moment?” Dreamfinder asks with a very throaty growl in his tone. The thought of anyone beating, throwing, kicking, or in this case, pushing his friends around and leaving them behind in the dust has made him infuriated, but he didn’t want to show anyone his anger. He stands back up, leaves from the group resigning Fye to the paramedics, and politely advances by Capri, Spark, Alex and the rest of the student body back down the path he came.

“Uh…sure, Dreamfinder.” said Figment. “But where are you going?”

“I’m going to have a little chat with Dr. Channing and teach him the meaning of the word respect.” Then Dreamfinder yells “And then I’m going to KICK HIS POSTERIOR STRAIGHT TO THE MOON!” 

Dreamfinder runs back through the hallway with his anger fueling his speed. His teeth are clenching with rage. He’s almost ready to scream his lungs out on the way there. The images in his mind are developing very negative thoughts. To Dreamfinder, this may be the most infuriating moment imaginable.

********************************************************************************************************

“What are you doing with my little spark?” Dr. Channing shouts.

Returning from a quick errand, Dr. Channing catches Rachel attempting to save the little spark from his possession. Seeing this, the professor is quivering to his shock and his upcoming rage. It was bad enough dealing with Fye in releasing it, but now Rachel trying to take it away by force has reached over the limit of his patience.

“Did Fye tell you to confiscate them from me?”

But Rachel remains silent. The fear boiling up in her just by looking at this man has made her freeze up like a stone statue. There is definitely something familiar about this scene like it’s all déjà vu, and in this déjà vu must lie a very dark memory. Rachel is caught red-handed, but now is not the time to give into her fears and scream. She must now sum up her courage and finally face the professor head on.

“Where did you really get this spark?” Rachel asks with a quiver in her tone.

“I’ve told you already.” Dr. Channing reminds. “I found it wandering around in the Imagination Pavilion at the Epcot Park fifteen years ago for research.”

“You stole it.”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did! I would know because I saw you do it.”

“Saw me? How would you—”

“A man named Eli Finder disappeared in Epcot at the late turn of the century of 2000, which was exactly fifteen years ago. His occupation as Cast Member was to portray as a meet-and-greet character, but not just any character.”

“Yes, I have heard of him, but—” 

“On the day he disappeared,” Rachel continues, “he was in his workshop doing what he did best undercover: creating sparks of imagination like this one right here. Beforehand, he had an assistant who used to help out and learn how these sparks were made and how greatly influential they are to the world. But the assistant grew jealous of Eli’s work and tried to take and use the sparks for himself and his own projects. Despite the warnings the assistant had been given, Eli had to fire him. I remember seeing him storming out outraged and mad. And in his madness the assistant wanted to get even with Eli. So shortly after he was fired, he came back with a dark and powerful force that’s eaten everything in the workshop from the sparks to the props and furniture to everything that had been made physical with the power of imagination. And once it finished everything it saw, it took Eli and disappeared with him while you stood there alone trying to hoard all of the escaping sparks until were you able to collect at least one of them, this one! And that monster that had taken Eli Finder away is rarely known to most, but to us we call him Nebulus.” 

“Mama?” the little spark started to cry. “Mama?”

“Do you know who I am, Dr. Channing?” Rachel inquires ominously.

“Wha-…who…who are you?” Dr. Channing asks in his astonishment.

“Think back. Think back to the day when Nebulus attacked the workshop and took away Eli. Was there anyone else who was there when it happened?”

“I…I…”

“ANSWER ME!” she shouts.

“I-I-I don’t know!” Channing sputters loudly. “I’ve never seen you before and I don’t remember seeing anyone else in the workshop.”

“Ah! You see? You DO know about the workshop when you said you didn’t and you WERE there when Eli was kidnapped when you said you weren’t! Those were your first two lies! Now tell me the truth! Who else was there when Nebulus attacked the workshop?”

“I don’t – I don’t remember who…wait.” Something sparks into Dr. Channing’s mind. His memory is fuzzy, but in the midst of it like a fuzzy television he was able to get a signal. His eyes grow big and wide and his mouth drops to his realization. “Wait a minute, I do! I do remember! It was me, Eli, Nebulus, and…”

“And?” Rachel drawls.

“I believe…there was this child. There was a little girl…like the one in the security footage Disney gave us. I remember her screaming when Nebulus arrived and…and…” That is when Dr. Channing finally understood. He takes another look at Rachel and studies her face carefully. Like the little spark, the professor sees a very striking familiarity in Rachel. He pictures her to the very best of his recollection: much smaller, shorter but long hair, same frightened face, and the same fire in her eyes. Flustered and upset, Rachel stares at the professor coldly, but underneath she is all the way too frightened to look at her opposer. Ending up with the same results in mind for a visual reference, he’s finally grasped on to the girl’s identity. “YOU?!”

“Me.” Rachel admits plainly. “My name is Rachel, and I was there when you and Nebulus took Uncle Eli away from me!”

“Yes. I remember you…as a child!” Channing breathes, as he starts slow and small steps towards the girl and the little spark. “I’ve been searching for you for years to get some answers out of you. To tell me the secrets of the sparks of imagination you and Eli have held precious when they’ve should’ve been all mine!”

“Eli had the right idea to fire you before things would have gotten out of hand. You wanted to use them for you own selfish reasons…for power! And now look at how things turned out. And once you did away with Eli and captured the little spark, you lied to everyone in the academy saying that it was all just the fault of that…that monster…when you were just as equally involved as he was. You lied to them that you found the spark himself and have been given special permission to study it. But you weren’t studying it; you’ve been trying to control it! To use it to your own advantage in order to gain the respect you’ve always felt was rightfully yours, giving yourself the credit of handling all of those sparks when Eli and I were the ones who were taking special care of them. You left me all these years to rot myself in a prison of fear and guilt when I could have been given a second chance in having a great childhood and a better understanding for my misunderstood youth. And for that, you’ve ruined everything! Eli’s gone, the workshop is gone, my childhood’s been destroyed for good, and because of you I’ve been living in a horrible reality with a background that even with a basis of fact, no one would believe me! I hardly believe that even Dreamfinder or Figment would believe me if I tell them. You, of all people, are the reason for my loneliness, my pain, my suffering, my guilt, and my grief! I have a mind kill you on the spot with whatever I’ve got.”

“I’m not scared of you, girl.” Channing, who now standing right before the girl and grabbing her by the collar of her shirt, says coldly. But Rachel immediately takes Dr. Channing by his arms, maliciously knees his groin with his voice shrieking like a little girl and pins him down on the table next the little spark in its capsule, shouting with all of her hate at him.

“YOU SHOULD BE!” she clamors. “Now where is he?”

“Wha—…who?”

“You know who I mean?” She slams his head on the hard metal tabletop real hard.

“Uhhh…”

“WHERE IS HE?!”

“Okay…take it easy, kid. I’m—”

“TELL ME! TELL ME WHERE HE IS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?”

“Nnnngh…! Now why are you asking…a question that you…already know the answer to?” Channing said, gasping for air and repeating the question Rachel had previously asked. “He’s with Nebulus.”

“Where?” Rachel growls through her teeth.

“Like I’m going tell you? All I can say is that he’s become perfectly comfortable there. And he’s already begun to lose all hope in being rescued. And on top of that, he’s lost hope in you.” Suddenly, Dr. Channing breaks free of Rachel’s grasp, grabs her by the neck and then pins her down to the table top. The little spark starts frantically crying out to Rachel in its own language as Rachel starts choking in Channing’s hands. The professor leans closer down to Rachel’s face and utters to her saying, “And now that I finally have you in my grasp after all these years, I’ll bet you’re just dying to join him. Shall we see if I’m right?”

Choking her harder and harder by the second, the professor watches Rachel desperately struggle to gasp for air. Her voice is squeaking higher and higher until it’s starting to crack. Her eyes begin to roll up and her muscles are starting to lose tension. She is losing the battle. She’s going to be choked to death. The only upside to it is that Dreamfinder and Figment may probably beat the crap out of Dr. Channing once they find her dead. But what if he hides the body? Well, even then, her friends are bound to learn that she’s missing anyways and come look for her. And what if they can’t. It will all be completely for her. Then again, what was there to begin with anyway? She knows she’s lived a worthless life. No friends, no family support, no dreams to dream about, there’s nothing left in her life to look forward to. She’s waited for sweet death to come and take her from the very beginning and it’s finally come knocking on the door. Perhaps now may finally be the time to answer death’s call and invite it in once and for all. It’s time to give up.

The little spark attacks the glass wall furiously. It tips the capsule side to side and making it jump up and down, but the capsule won’t budge. Not even a single crack would show. The spark starts crying to Rachel. Crying and crying and crying ever so loudly that even its sound isn’t enough to get it out. A little spark of imagination in its current state over the years has become too weak to make a dent on anything. Then Yuna’s voice starts crying out her name. She can hear Yuna telling her to fight this grasp of darkness and to break free from the professor’s custody. But for once, that’s not helping her either. Who is there left to help cheer her on? Not her dad; he’s obviously failed her as a father. Neither can her mom; not once has she ever told Rachel to be strong or ask for help when needed. Eli’s not here to save her. And as supportive as they would be, her siblings really wouldn’t know what else to do to help her out of this.

But suddenly, her ears are starting to play tricks on her. She thinks she’s hearing Dreamfinder’s voice softly calling out to her. In a golden light within her imagination, she sees Dreamfinder standing before her. His kind smile and tender spirit caresses her soul whole like warm sheet and a hug desperately desired. He attentively holds out his hand to Rachel waiting for her to take his. She did ask God to send one of his angels to take her away from the madness she has considered to be her life. Has Dreamfinder become Rachel’s guardian angel now? Did God really send Dreamfinder to be with her with Figment for a bonus? Possibly.

“Take my hand, Rachel.” Dreamfinder’s dream self lovingly commands. “I promise nothing bad will happen to you.”

Hearing those gentle words coming out from that gentle man again has made Rachel remember the day they first met; the day Dreamfinder had her brought to his presence that had resulted in having her fired from her dream job and swept away in his embrace. All that may have been fate waiting to have happened for what may have seemed it’d taken thousands of light years to happen. The Dreamfinder’s hand fondles her cheek mildly like it’s a touch of mercy. Imagine how crushed and destroyed Dreamfinder will become if Rachel gives in to Dr. Channing’s cold, icy claws of death. This may be the last chance Rachel is getting to break free and be with Dreamfinder and Figment once again. Rachel slowly reaches out and takes both of Dreamfinder’s loving hands. As she does, the dream Dreamfinder yanks Rachel right into his arms and holds her tightly. 

“Don’t let go of me now, my dear.” he tells her graciously, “You’re safe with me.”

In an instant, a ray of pure white light overtakes the golden sun-colored atmosphere and engulfs the two dreamers together. There is nothing around them but white, white, white. Is this Heaven? Has Dreamfinder brought Rachel to Heaven at last? It’d be nice if it is, she thought, I could finally get a nice long peaceful rest. But if this is Heaven, why isn’t Dreamfinder or Figment here to be with her? Come to think of it, where is everybody else? This could not possibly be Hell. It’s much too bright to see and it’s not as hot as one could imagine it to be. 

The whiteness slowly begins to show off some colors, but is blurry in the girl’s vision. Her strength is returning fast, her vision is coming in clearer, and her blood is beginning to warm up all over again. She sees Dr. Channing still trying to choke her to her death, but Rachel sluggishly grabs on to Channing’s arms, grips it tight, and gasps some air. To make her stronger, she and growls and raises her tone to a scream, pushing Dr. Channing off and kicking him with her strong leg into his gut. The professor is knocked down to the floor. It may be possible that Rachel may have kicked his appendix. The poor doctor is on the ground coughing, huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf is having an asthma problem. Just barely had Rachel cheated death to win her life back. She looks over to the little spark in its capsule, cheering for her success in winning the fight for life. Seeing the opportunity to free this little spark once and for all, Rachel takes a large wrench from the table and starts to swing it at the capsule.

“MAMA! MAMA!” the little spark cheers happily, bouncing side to side in rhythm.

“Brace yourself!” Rachel said to the little spark.

Taking heed of Rachel’s warning, the spark crouches down to the capsule floor. That wrench looks menacing enough break anything six times bigger than it. Running through the blood in her veins, Rachel’s muscles tense up for leverage and she swings the wrench at the capsule with great force! At the very touch of the two physical objects, the wrench breaks the glass and the glass shatters into hundred of tiny pieces. The floor is now covered and plagued with sharp bits of glass while there are still some flying through the air across a far distance towards the walls. Rachel throws down the wrench out of Dr. Channing’s reach, and without thinking of the possibility that the spark’s aura might harm her, which it doesn’t, she collects the little spark into her arms and breaks off out of the lab.

“GUARDS! GUARDS!” Channing shouts at the top of his lungs while he is still breathing. “GET HER! GET THAT GIRL!”

But by the time Dr. Channing has grabbed the attention of nearby security guards to help him up his feet, Rachel and the little spark are already off in their grand escape.

Safely tucked into her arms, the little spark tries not to cry, for it would only let itself worry all the more for the escape to likely fail should Rachel trip or let herself give in and give up. In the midst of the sea of students who have already finished their classes, more security guards are pushing through to catch up. About five of those guards are riding up Rachel’s tail to get her and the spark. This may be the first time Rachel has ever been in a police chase by foot or car. The feeling is incredibly exhilarating…but terrifying.

As the students watch Rachel and the security guards run by, she crosses over, up the stairs to the second floor, and turns at every corner she could find that isn’t being inhabited by a large quantity of students or police. The Academy-Scientifica-Lucidus is so big she can run just about anywhere with no problem. The effects of Dr. Channing choking her, however, has weakened her chances of running any faster with her blood still trying to pump up and provide for her more energy. As she continues to run all over the school, more and more security guards keep multiplying in attempts to grab the girl and be brought to the Chairman, or worse yet, back to Dr. Channing.

Suddenly, an arm reaches out from a small creek in the wall and grabs Rachel by her shirt on her right shoulder. The police, not seeing it happen and not realizing the creek on the wall, chases past it and continues pursuing the girl and the spark elsewhere. Inside the darkness of the creek, they are safe; Rachel, the little spark, and…

“Runa!” Rachel exclaims. 

“Hey, Rachel!” Runa smiles.

“What are you doing here?”

“I saw you being chased by security and I figured you might need some help. That is, if you’re not guilty of what you must have done.”

“Let’s just say I am, but for a good reason. I was running from Dr. Channing’s lab where he was and has been holding this little guy right here captive for the past fifteen years!”

“Mama…My Mama…” the little spark coos in Rachel’s arms.

“Oh my…gosh! Is that…is that a spark of imagination? A real spark of imagination?”

“You know of them?” Rachel inquires with shock.

“When I was a little girl, Fye would tell me stories of the rumors pertaining to little tiny sparks of imagination inhabiting the old Imagination Pavilion ride at Epcot Park. I’ve always dreamed they’d be real and now…here one is!”

“What if I told you that I was there when some of these were created?”

“Were you?!”

“Yes, and so was Dr. Channing! It’s hard to explain at the moment. Right now, I’ve got every security guard in the academy out to get me under Dr. Channing’s orders and I’ve got to get this little spark out of here to safety! Set it free, if even.”

“That’s terrible of him to do such a thing!” says Runa angrily. “The poor thing must be scared to death!”

“Runa, you know the ins and outs of where is where in the academy!” Rachel realizes. “You can get us out of here!” 

“But what about Dreamfinder and Figment?”

“I don’t know. I may have to explain everything to them later when I either come back for them or they come and find me because if they see me with this spark and I explain it all to them right there, the security guards will likely catch us and they’ll get in trouble, too. They’ll be asked a bunch of questions they won’t know the answer to but I will! And God knows the last thing I want is to put my friends’ reputations and their lives at stake. Will you help me?” Rachel appeals.

“For this little fella, I will.” Runa agrees with a smirk forming in her face. 

“Good. We’d better get going before the guards come back with their dogs.”

“We don’t have dogs.”

“Runa, every bodily security system has a dog. You don’t always see them unless something big comes up and they’ll be needed to sniff out the perpetrator, and today is likely to be one of those times.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” As Rachel starts to peek out of the creek for safety, Runa suddenly grabs onto her arms, pulls her back a little and says, “Rachel, by any chance you must know a girl named Yuna. Is she really…?”

“…Yes.” Rachel solemnly replies.

“Can I…can I see her?”

“I’d love to, but I don’t think now is the perfect time to have another reunion. Yuna and I may have to escape together with the little spark.”

“Then can you tell that…that…that I want to see her again soon and catch up? I’ve never had a sister.”

“I will. And I’ll do my best to bring her back here if I can when this all calms down a bit.”

“Thank you.”

“Now let’s get going! The sooner this spark is safe, the better.”

********************************************************************************************************

“CHANNING!” Dreamfinder yells.

His loud, angry voice fills the halls alarming every student and staff he passes by. His anger for the harm of his friends is exceeding to greater levels for the worst. The closer he is getting to Dr. Channing and his lab, the angrier he is getting.

He arrives at Dr. Channing’s labs, doors opened, and storms inside. But Dreamfinder finds Dr. Channing being lifted up and arrested by a couple security guards who were originally just going to help him. He can’t tell how, but it seems that one or some of the other guards have already given the message of Channing assaulting Fye. With all the security guards everywhere in the room, there is no way Dreamfinder can relieve himself of his tension to Dr. Channing now. 

“Unhand me!” Dr. Channing hollers. “It’s the girl you should be arresting, not me!”

“Yeah, yeah, we get the memo, doc.” said one of the guards, unconvincingly with his eyes rolling. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re under arrest for assaulting a coworker on property grounds. The Chairman is going to have a long talk with you.”

“But I’m the real victim here! That girl has destroyed school property, she’s stolen my spark, and now she’s breaking out of the academy this minute. We got to catch her!”

Overhearing the doctor’s outbursts Dreamfinder looks over to the desk and, sure enough, there is a mess of broken glass and a large wrench everywhere and the little spark is nowhere in sight. Could Rachel really…no, she couldn’t have, Dreamfinder thought. She wouldn’t! Rachel would never do such a thing. Then again, she has been gone for a while. By now, she would have been finished going to the bathroom. Provided, of course, Rachel has been feeling very suspicious about Dr. Channing since they arrived. Perhaps there is more than one villain roaming around the academy; and while one of them is being arrested the other one is making a run for it out the academy! Of course, Dreamfinder would rather much turn to the other choice but given the facts on this case, it may likely just be possible.

After giving a horrible scowl to Dr. Channing from the distance, Dreamfinder runs back out of the lab in search of Rachel. Along the way, he sees a batch of more security guards running about chasing two girls and a small pale orangey-pink orb in one of their arms: Rachel and Runa! It’s unbelievable! He sees the little spark tucked inside of Rachel’s arms and barging through the student body like a football player and the ball on the field with Runa leading the way. His heart is now officially broken.

Overwhelmed by the anger and heartbreak he is having and charging like a red mad bull, Dreamfinder embarks in chasing Rachel wherever she is going. Tears are starting to fill up his eyes, but Dreamfinder decides to save them until he catches up to her. Maybe what she has to say isn’t as bad as he can imagine. Still it’s no excuse to go out and “steal” something from school property, especially if it’s private property. Yelling and physically abusing esteemed staff of the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus has been bad enough already, but stealing something important has gone way over the line. Enough is enough!

Coming up in Dreamfinder’s view is Figment, who has just left Fye’s side alone in search of his friend to tell him the news. But Dreamfinder is far too focused in Rachel running away with the spark. He didn’t even bother glancing at his own imaginary friend as he is passing by. This time today, he is that mad! He starts crying out Rachel’s name with great anger and affliction, but it’s only making him feel worse inside. He doesn’t realize that Figment is flying right behind him and then up to his side.

********************************************************************************************************

They’re almost arriving at the building’s entrance, Rachel and Runa. By now, the entire school has been instructed to return to their classes in a serious lockdown until the problem has been solved. The entire academy is crawling with security guards planting themselves behind corners and blocking off most of the doors and archways. The only people who are remaining outside the classroom doors are Rachel and Runa with the little spark and Dreamfinder and Figment with the guards.

Approaching the balcony of the second floor, Rachel and Runa are being blocked by a line of security guards arms with battering clubs and shields. It’s like the academy has its own SWAT team! The stairs leading down to the first floor are blocked off and more guards along with Dreamfinder and Figment are forming up from second floor hallways. The girls are now trapped and the little spark is trembling like a tiny pebble bouncing on and off the ground by an earthquake. The little spark starts to cry in Rachel’s arms and hearing it cry is making Rachel even more badly about the situation she was in. She had hoped that she would be able to pull this off quietly. But thanks to Dr. Channing’s big fat mouth, this happens.

“Mama…” the spark whimpers.

“Nobody move! You’re under arrest!” shouted one of the guards.

“Rachel!” Figment cries. “What are you doing?”

But Rachel wouldn’t say anything. She is much too terrified to speak seeing as how the entire academy is after her and there’s no way out of here. It’s impossible to escape now! Or is it?

“Rachel! Whatever you’re doing, don’t do it!” Dreamfinder cries as well. “Surrender yourself to security and we can all talk this out.”

“I can’t…” Rachel mutters under her breath. “…not here.”

“Rachel…” 

“We’re giving you one last chance.” shouted the security guard again. “Surrender yourself and that…whatever that is or we’ll be forced to take action!”

This may be it. This may be the last chance to surrender…to give up. Rachel’s let this go on for long enough and chances are the ending to this little fiasco will not be pretty. There is not a single gap opening up between each of the guards around them. Runa is not looking so good either. This is the one time in her entire school career when she opposes academy regulations and gets stuck in the middle of a bombard.

Rachel looks right behind her and notices the stairs and the entrance doors are completely packed with security guards. But there is no police filling up any space in the air. She turns her head back and looks over to the side of the surrounding where Dreamfinder and Figment are. A few minutes ago, while Dr. Channing was choking her still, she was thinking of Dreamfinder coming to save her from a terrible fate. Now, he’s asking her to surrender to the academy and let go of the little spark she happens to care about so much. So much for a guardian angel. She sees a tear or two forming up in Dreamfinder’s eyes; he’s becoming really scared for her. Perhaps the most scared he’s ever been for her in their entire relationship. Through this madness, their journies through imagination may be coming to an end.

Rachel looks down and faces the floor for a moment. Hanging below her is the blue dream-made necklace that Dreamfinder had made specifically for her. It begins to glow very faintly, signifying that Yuna is still inside, but is not ready to show herself yet. She knows what she has to do now. Inhaling deeply through nose and then exhaling, Rachel takes a long heavy sigh of defeat.

But just as Rachel was about to say she is giving up, jerks her body toward the direction of the balcony and breaks out in another run. To the guards’ reaction, they squeeze together on their side and start to charge at the girl and they catch Runa. Dreamfinder cries out to Rachel, horrified by the decision if resisting she has made. But Rachel ignores her friend’s cry. All of sudden, wishing through her necklace’s power, Rachel takes a giant leap clear over the guards’ barrier in starts falling midair. Many of them try to catch her as she falls down, but none of them succeed. Shocked at Rachel’s actions, Dreamfinder and Figment charge through the security guards and down the stairs to catch her. But not even they succeed either. 

Before Rachel could hit the ground, she starts imaging herself to fly again just as she had done before at the D23 expo and in Iyrilia. She boosts herself and shoots herself in the air like a cannon, avoiding any reach from her enemies and Dreamfinder and Figment. 

Ahead of her is a wall of one of the glass pyramids and right outside is the open air leading to her and the little spark’s freedom. But there’s still one problem: how to get out? Doubtfully, the door because if Rachel flies down to where the doors are, it’s likely that she may get caught by the guards and get pulled back down. The only way out is through the glass! Tucking the little spark safely and deeply in her arms, Rachel curls up like a ball and crashes through the pyramid’s glass wall, leaving a giant hole behind her. The guards are stunned. And Runa is stunned, but that is not stopping her from cheering her on at the last sight.

“GO, RACHEL! GO!” Runa shouts, as she is being strangled down to the ground by the guards.

Dreamfinder and Figment are just about the only two people still running after Rachel and the spark. They exit past the police who guarded the academy doors and run outside, hoping to catch the magnificent flying Rachel back into their little group.

Rachel lands back down onto the grassy ground, but continues running in full pursuit away from Dreamfinder, Figment and the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus carrying the little spark with her. Her eyes are drowning in tears. To think that she could do such a thing to the place where Dreamfinder had so dearly desired to show her as well as a piece of his history. And to make matter worse, she’s running away from him for doing what she knew she would be partially ashamed to do. Choking up in her throat, she peers down at her necklace, radiantly glowing brightly blue, and makes a wish.

“I WISH TO GO TO THE SAFEST PLACE THE LITTLE SPARK AND I CAN BE!”

In an instant, the necklace glows brighter and brighter than it has before, engulfing Rachel and the spark in its light as they run. Shocked to see it happen, the Dreamfinder and his Figment continue to chase after. They hear her screaming her wish and seeing that it’s about to come true, they have to catch her before it’s too late. Dreamfinder has gotten closer and closer to Rachel; close enough to reach his arms out and grab her! But the light has made Rachel’s body completely transparent and untouchable. With the little spark curled up close to her heart, she disappears with the light blue-colored aura into the light and to the vast of nothingness.

Dreamfinder and Figment stop running. There is no longer any girl that they know of with a tiny ball of light to be seen and that has upset Dreamfinder gravely. Falling to his knees, the Dreamfinder cries aloud calling Rachel’s name knowing that she is not coming back and that he has just lost her! He screams and screams and screams his earth shattering shrill of a voice toward the forest, crying for the woman he just happened to love. His face, everywhere from his forehead to his ginger-brown mustache and beard, is drenched with sweat and tears. But realizing what she had just done that has caused her to run off like this, he stops his screaming, but continues sobbing. Figment, the only companion he’s got, floats over to Dreamfinder’s side and pats him on the shoulder for comfort. It’s apparent, however, that a shoulder pat is not going to help at all.

 

 

Rachel is gone.


	35. Chapter 35

“I can’t believe she would do this.” Dreamfinder mutters with despair.

The events of Rachel “stealing” the little spark from Dr. Channing today have been running and beating through Dreamfinder’s mind all day. The thoughts keep repeating themselves like a film reel being rewound back to the beginning over and over and over again. Dreamfinder, still looking a bit pale from what happened at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, blankly looks at the wall in the kitchen of the Harmony residence.

The Dreamfinder, along with Figment and Alex had taken up Capri and Spark’s offer and her mother’s permission in staying at their house to rest for a night or two. Off to the east side of the Florida coast lies the small surfing city of Cocoa. Its vast blue waters and crashing white waves of the Atlantic Ocean reflect the wide cloud-scattered sunny skies. Tens of sailboats float by with the seagulls flying over their heads as they stream down the long line of water and sand inhabited by hundreds of beach houses and shops. If one person would sit on the pale sands of the beach late in the afternoon and into the evening or from the evening to the rising dawn, that person would have a front row seat to see the sunrise and the sunset twenty-four/seven.

Somewhere along the line of the coast and to the border of the city, a large forest of jungle-like palm trees engulfs the small house of the Harmony family: Spark, Capri and her mother along with her own rodent-like (likely parts guinea pig, rat, lion [by the mane it has] and hamster) imaginary friend. It’s a small, but charming little two-story house, just large for a family of two or three to live in. A majority of the house sits just a few feet west of the beach and into the jungle of palm trees where beside it, small two-way street with a long row of telephone lines standing tall like pillars of a large temple interconnected by miles of high voltage cable. The inside of the house has its own charm, too: a small living room, a kitchen and a tiny balcony on the roof where Capri’s bedroom is.

While Capri and Spark are out playing in the beach behind the house with Figment and Alex, Dreamfinder is left inside grieving, grumbling and feeling distraught over Rachel’s actions. She deliberately stole something that specifically belonged to a school property, HIS school’s property, and just took off, disappearing in a flash of bright blue with it. He could not have imagined how and why it ever came across Rachel’s mind to do something so reckless. Because of her, she has left the entire school in a state of hysteria and turbulence. And in all of this, it was all up to both Dreamfinder and Figment to take the responsibility.

********************************************************************************************************

 

Two hours ago…

 

“Chairman Auckley, I…I don’t know how to explain or what to say about what’s happened today.” Dreamfinder’s lips shudders with his throat all choked from the tears he had previously poured out.

Just after Rachel had disappeared with the little spark, an emergency meeting came up and was taken place in Chairman Auckley’s tan-colored office. The Chairman himself along with Dr. Channing standing on both of his sides behind the desk while Dreamfinder, Figment, and Alex all stood on the other side. The Chairman gravely looks deep into Dreamfinder’s bewildered eyes. He sees how Dreamfinder may be on the verge of crying again as he did before outside the building when Rachel left, but decides not to push further in. There is no sense in making a grown man cry (again). So he looks down over to Alex. The look in the Katkin’s eyes shows his pupils shaking with an intense nervousness for Dreamfinder’s sake. His furry hands would not keep still but quiver and twitch with all the trauma and uprising that’s happened in the academy. He hasn’t seen this much action go on since his time with Ron back in Iyrilia. The Chairman sits back, sighing heavily to his annoyance in the matter. 

Going over to Dr. Channing, he stiffly stares Dreamfinder down due to his frustration in one of Dreamfinder’s friends sneaking into his office and stealing the little spark he felt was his sole property. He sniffs the air in the room, holding back any snot that may come down in his misfortune of losing his prized possession. His hands behind his back are fidgeting greatly as he struggles to remain calm. He knows he’s already in trouble for harmfully disrupting Fye’s well being. But he feels that if he goes down, then Rachel, or better yet Dreamfinder and Figment, will go down with him, too.

“I want you to tell me the truth, Dreamfinder, Figment.” the Chairman says out of his sighing. “Was Mr. Alex Waver’s enrollment into the academy a distraction for Ms. Rachel to steal that little spark in Dr. Channing’s laboratory?”

“What?” said Alex with shock.

“No, of course not!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “It’s been our very intention for Alex to receive his education here and nothing else since we found him! And believe us, none of us had imagined Rachel doing something like-like…stealing!”

“That’s right!” said Figment in trying to defend Alex as well. “This kid is a very talented guy! He can build and fix things that could knock you out of your seats!”

“Mr. Chairman,” Alex says, “I see that what happened today turned out to be a coincidence to you accepting my plea to enroll, and I just want to say that I don’t want to go back to my home world an empty handed failure. I had to fight my way through life to get the chance of going to college and earn a degree to do the things I’ve always wanted to do. If I couldn’t get that back home and if I can’t get that here, where can I get it? Please, Mr. Chairman, I’m asking you to understand that I had no intention on sneaking my way through the application process to earn a place here in the academy and neither does Dreamfinder or Figment. And I know Rachel was just as supportive for me to earn my place here as these two do.”

“I understand, Mr. Wavers, believe me.” said the Chairman calmly. “After Dreamfinder and Figment had defeated the Doubtfinder here a year ago, I felt like I’ve seen more than enough in my life. And I believed every word you and Dreamfinder and Figment said earlier today. These two, especially! If Dreamfinder and Figment say that you are qualified to join our Invention and Ingenuity program, and so long as you pass our entry exam and thesis submission, which on one point you have passed during our interview this morning, then I believe you are.”

“Does that mean I still have a seat in the academy for next semester?”

“It does. Plus, off point, I believe it would nice to see other kinds of races, not just humans, to show their stuff and provide a much wider diversity into the academy. Mr. Fye was once from a different realm of imagination where Dreamfinder and Figment had found him and has been a part of our esteemed staff for many decades. I think giving him the pleasure of connecting with young and intelligent foreign life forms like yourself would please him a lot.”

“Whew!” Alex sighs with relief.

“So is Fye is going to be okay?” asked Figment.

“The paramedics said that it’s just a couple of sprained muscles and a slight crack on his kneecaps.” said the Chairman solemnly. “If he is treated well, then he should recover soon.”

“Yay!”

“And what about Runa?” Dreamfinder asks.

“I’ve allowed her to meet with him at the hospital and have her update us as soon as possible on what else may happen. But now the matter lies with how to deal with this situation that your friend, Rachel has caused along with Runa, who is just as equally responsible for this fiasco as Rachel is.”

“Chairman Auckley, I’m not happy with what’s happened here in the academy today as much as everyone else is and I’m prepared to take full responsibility of their deeds.”

“Yeah, Mr. Chairman!” Figment exclaims. “I’m sure Rachel must have had a good reason for taking the spark?”

“Taking?” Dr. Channing blurts out. “She not only stole what was completely vital to our research, but she took away what’s belonged to the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and has sent the state of the entire school body in an uproar! She stole school property, assaulted esteemed faculty in the face, stroked fear into the hearts of the students and staff, disrupted our pace of research, and on top of it all she’s attracted public attention to the academy that has once remained private since Chairman Illocrant moved us here until you three brought her here! Because of her actions, we’ll have to face up to the media of our research, then have Rachel reported to the police and put her through life in prison for grand theft!”

“Indeed.” said the Chairman. “She can be in a lot of trouble right now…” The Chairman didn’t finish his sentence just yet. He watches the slight change of expression in Dreamfinder and Figment. Their faces are dull as they face down the tiled floor. Their arms are hanging like strings of spaghetti dangling on a fork. And he hear how heavily and defeated their sighs are for believing that they are the cause of this predicament, which may viably be true. But as the Chairman plays his fingers on his short coarse black hair leaning on one side of his chair, he puts up a weak smirk and says, “…but she’s not.”

“She’s not?” Dreamfinder and Figment replied, perplexed.

“She’s not?” said the also perplexed Dr. Channing.

“No, she’s not in trouble.” said the Chairman. “I’m not going to call the police on Ms. Rachel. And my reasons are because just as the past chairmen have intended for this academy I don’t want any more of the public to come in crawling about looking for a scoop, trespassing private property for the sake of news. We’ve already had more than enough of that shortly after the Doubtfinder was defeated. But more than that, I’m not going to call the police on Ms. Rachel because suppose the media, or worse yet, the government or secret service, gets a hold on everything we’ve got including that little spark, should Rachel not have taken it, we’d be forced to answer questions to them about our current research that we wouldn’t know the answer to. Not yet at least; primarily that little spark from the laboratory. And when we’d finish, the government will take the action to confiscate everything we have and try to solve the problem themselves and take all of the credit. And I don’t want to think about the possible dangers that could cause throughout the Earth should it steer in the wrong direction. Plus, we’ve just did a background check in our inventory of evidence and test subjects and we couldn’t find anything from a listing or a commissioned documentation that says about that little spark being part of our research. So if anything save for the worst, God forbid there ever should be any, both Rachel and Runa have done us all a favor and a great service to the academy.”

“Austin! Are you serious?” Dreamfinder clamors, revealing the Chairman’s first name.

“Of course I’m serious! And I should be thanking you three as well for bringing her here. If you hadn’t, we would’ve had to deal with a longer remaining guilt of keeping something this secretive to the academy, should someone outside find out, and we’d never hear the end of hundreds of lawyers and government agencies gaining up on us for information. Without her, the academy itself would likely be no more. So I suggest, Dreamfinder, that should you and Figment ever return to the academy again, please bring Rachel back along with you. She seems to be quite a wondrous woman. And I can safely say that Runa won’t be expelled from the academy either, but be let off with a warning.”

“Alright!” Figment and Alex cheered with a high five, filling in Dreamfinder’s shock as his jaw drops.

“Hold on! Wait a minute!” Dr. Channing bellows, as he raises his arms in the air. “This girl just stole what was ours and risked the reputation and privacy of the academy and you’re going to thank her for it?”

“She had to steal that spark,” said the Chairman, raising his tone and rising to his feet behind the desk to face Dr. Channing, “because you tried to hide unauthorized material from me and the rest of the Board of Directors, adding to your despicable crime against Fye and placing the entire school personnel and their futures at stake, which is why…you’re fired!”

“What?!” Channing yawps, shocking everyone else in the room. “You-you can’t fire me! We have a contract! You said I’d have full control of the research with whatever relevant material I can find!”

“Yes, but you failed to ask for authorization of using that little spark for that research, therefore breaching your contract for your own selfish gain. So either you punch out your time card, clean your desk and get out, or I will immediately pick up that phone and call the police!”

Angered, shocked and upset, Dr. Channing storms out of the Chairman’s office. As he does, he tilts his head and glances at Dreamfinder and Figment on his way out with his eyes filling and boiling with immense hatred. An hour ago, he shows his complete trust and loyalty to his two heroes, and now it’s all been crumpled and remade crooked. Dreamfinder saw in his eyes that this newfound hatred coming from Dr. Channing might be the start of a bitter rivalry against each other. Rachel had warned Dreamfinder of how bad of a person Channing is and now it’s finally begun to show itself. As Figment watched Dr. Channing leave, his senses and his conscience trembled vigorously, feeling sympathetic and sorry for these turn of events being placed heavily on the doctor’s shoulders. Dr. Channing loudly slams the door behind him, leaving a crack on the window of the door. This may just be the last that the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus will ever see and mention Dr. Nigel Channing again.

“Wow.” said Alex with a blank expression, but slight chill in his voice.

“Poor Dr. Channing.” said Figment.

“I hate having to let Dr. Channing go.” said Chairman Auckley. “His talents and his intellect are incredible, but firing him for what he’s done is for the good of the academy. Off point, he always reminded me of one of the knights from a Monty Python film for some reason. From here on, all we can do now is walk on safer grounds and resume our research, while also as dreamers we take some risks.”

“And on the upper side, Rachel is innocent! We can go find her, bring her back to our group, and continue our search for that giant sphere again! Whaddaya say, Dreamfinder?”

“…”

“Dreamfinder?”

Dreamfinder would not say another word. He is still in shock over how things turned out. To think that Rachel’s actions have caused Dr. Channing to get fired as if things weren’t bad enough as it is. His emotions started churning into mixed feelings of anger, guilt, heartache, and frustration. Dreamfinder, looking rather displeased, looks back over to Figment, who was smiling at the idea of finding Rachel again, and finds the dragon’s hand placed on his shoulder. As Dreamfinder watches Figment’s smile melt away in his bewilderment of Dreamfinder’s expression, the Dreamfinder gravely crosses to Figment.

“You know what, Figment?” said Dreamfinder in a restrained anger. “ I don’t give a bloody arse where she is because I’m not getting her back.”

Dreamfinder pulls his shoulder away from the astounded Figment and storms out. He swings the door wide open and mildly slams it behind him, leaving Figment, Alex and the Chairman in the quiet room with their disbelief. With Dreamfinder out of the Chairman’s office and heading straight down the halls, he leaves the academy back to the Dream Machine with a straight, but serious face covered with falling tears.

********************************************************************************************************

“Penny for your thoughts, Dreamfinder?”

Coming towards him is Jess Harmony, Capri’s mother. She notices Dreamfinder tensed up as he’s leaning over the kitchen table mumbling and quoting some of the words that happen to be coming out his mouth. That’s a sign that says that something is not right with Dreamfinder. They first met just when Dreamfinder and Figment was defeating the Doubtfinder beast with Capri and Spark. Like Capri, Jess is also a descendent of one of Dreamfinder’s siblings, making her Dreamfinder’s great-great-grand niece. Capri’s mother is dressed in her favorite light blue tank top with black slacks and mauve flats. Her short, jet-black hair illuminates in the sun beaming lights shinning through the kitchen window. Her blue eyes match Dreamfinder’s; that proves that she has his family’s genes. And those genes have been passed straight down to Capri, whom both Dreamfinder and Jess have become very proud of. On her shoulder is her own imaginary friend; unnamed, but still adorable. Both Jess and her friend approach the miserable Dreamfinder with two cups and a pot of tea and a plate of cookies. Seeing as how they’re family, it’s likely that they’re trying to place themselves into Dreamfinder’s British heritage. Jess pours a cup of tea for Dreamfinder and hands it to him, eager to hear what Dreamfinder has been thinking of.

“Thank you, Jess.” said Dreamfinder as he kindly accepts Jess’ tea. “I’m just…I’m just upset with the fact that Rachel would ever steal from the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus and getting Dr. Channing fired. I mean, granted that he’s already done harm in hurting Fye, to which I’ll probably never forgive him for, but I can’t see how Rachel’s behavior could be ignored after what’s she’s done even if it did save the academy in one way.” 

“You say that Chairman Auckley’s okay with Rachel taking that little spark away.” said Jess, sipping her tea and handing her imaginary friend a cookie. The imaginary friend takes the cookie to his delight and starts nibbling on it. “But how come that isn’t enough to please you either?”

“Jess, stealing is stealing. Believe me, I know. There may have been people who might have forgiven another person for taking their things, but this is something I, like most people, would never tolerate with. And this isn’t even the first time she’s acted so rash towards anyone. I get her fired from her job; she chokes me and punches me in the jaw. I try to wake Figment up from his sleep; she screams in his ear! I try to snap Chairman Auckley out of his shock of seeing a new life form in his office trying to enroll into the academy; she slaps him in the face! Just like that! And now that I think back, I…I don’t think I liked her as much as I had hoped.”

“Oh come on, Dreamfinder! Have you ever considered the reason why Rachel would take that spark in the first place?”

“No, and I don’t plan to!” Dreamfinder abruptly yells, sipping his tea angrily, “I’ve given that girl more than enough chances to behave like a good guest onto my own dirigible and not once has she changed for the better. Stealing from the academy I’ve once attended to…PAH! And here I thought a company of three would brighten my day, let alone my adventures with Figment.”

“Well maybe you’ve just picked out one from the wrong crowd.” Jess suggests. “And even then, from what I’ve learned from you, you’ve used the power of your imagination to help others, my daughter included! Don’t you think Rachel deserves a chance in A) explaining herself, and B) be given some help to maybe find herself in life?”

“Well even if she does, it doesn’t matter anymore. She’s vanished from the academy somewhere with that little spark and might never return. She’s probably too ashamed to look at me for what she did after everything I’ve done to make her happy. All for nothing.”

Dreamfinder sips his tea like a drunkard and holds out his teacup for a refill. Better tea than alcohol or booze. Jess refills her grand uncle’s cup in a calm manner and watches him tentatively. His sad blue eyes are starting to glisten with tears like there is no likely end to his grief and sorrow, despite how badly he wants to put it all behind him. His lips quiver to his misery of losing a friend, ready to scream or burst out in tears again. His heart is broken by a girl he once believed to be innocent and wonderful, but now sees her as unkind and untrustworthy. With Dreamfinder beginning to sniffle through his nose, Jess’ eyes widen to her comprehension.

“You’re in love with her!” Jess realizes with a gasp.

“Was.” Dreamfinder corrects. “I was in love with her. She’s been giving me and Figment far more trouble than I had anticipated in her, whatever goodness there was left in her. I may have only known her for over a month, but that’s more than enough time to see how bad a person can be.”

“But Dreamfinder, only a month? Perhaps if you can just talk to her and get to know her more once you find her—”

“I’m done with getting to know her, Jess!” Dreamfinder yells, rising from his seat slamming the table. “I don’t want to have anymore to do with her!” A brief silence fills the room. This is worst thing he has ever said about Rachel. The Dreamfinder has scared Jess’ friend into dropping its cookie and hide behind her neck, away from Dreamfinder’s rash tone. As Jess comforts her friend, Dreamfinder’s face softens and shifts back into his bad conscience. He slowly sits back down to his chair and wistfully apologizes to Jess and her friend. “I’m sorry, Jess. I know you’re trying to help me, and thank you, but it’s over between Rachel and me. I never want to hear her name mentioned to me, around me or on the Dream Machine ever again for the rest of my life.”

“Alright.” said Jess in defeat. “But let me tell you this, I believe that you may just as well end up finding Rachel again whether you like it or not, whether you intend to or not. And when that happens you two are going to have to talk whether or not you want to listen. And you will! You listen to everything she has to say, because if you don’t with all of that spite it will only drive her deeper into the ground and she will hate you and herself for it. If she doesn’t want to talk to you, though, then don’t force her. It’s her decision to say what she wants when she wants. Only then will it be over.”

“How could I end something when there wasn’t anything to begin with? All that’s happened on my end was a hopeless romantic phase going on in my fantasies for a knob-headed mare who thinks that everything in life should be solved by violence. Kind of like…her father.”

“Her father?”

“Rachel’s always told me how terribly her father has treated her all her life, so that might explain where she gets all that rage from…and that’s what got her to run away with me and Figment in the first pla—No! NO! I’m not falling for that again! Even if it’s true, I won’t give in to that!”

“But Dreamfinder, you don’t think—!”

“Jess, I am done talking about this! Rachel is gone forever and that’s that!”

“Dreamfinder?” said a jittery voice coming out of nowhere.

“WHAT?!” Dreamfinder yells. 

He quickly turns around and finds Capri and Spark coming into the room behind him. His attitude immediately shifts at the sight of his own niece standing there shivering with fear from the tone of her granduncle’s voice with Spark holding her hand in comfort, especially from someone who happens to be her all-time hero. Then Dreamfinder shifts his eyes towards Alex and Figment, who have also been shocked by Dreamfinder’s words. Figment, however, seems to be affecting Dreamfinder the most. He stares into Figment’s big yellow eyes as his tiny brown-blackish pupils begin to rattle. This is the first time Figment has ever seen his creator this angry.

“Oh my goodness, you seem so tart! A better attitude you need to restart.” Spark rhymes.

“C-Capri! Spark!” Dreamfinder gasps. “I am so sorry! I didn’t hear any of you come in.”

“It’s okay, Dreamfinder.” said Capri, trying to sum up her courage again. “It’s obvious you’re still upset about what happened today.”

“Well, I…yes, I was. But I’m over it now. Did you need something?”

“I was going to show you the inventions Spark and I made we wanted you to see.”

“Zip-a-dee-dee! Don’t wait, come see!” Spark cheers.

“Oh, that’s right! I do! I’d love to see what you’ve been working on! Jess, you don’t mind if I…”

“Sure, Dreamfinder.” Jess smiles. “Just don’t make a mess in there.”

“Mom,” said Capri with a smirk and a chuckle, “you should already know this by now…of course we’re gonna make a mess!”

“Capri…” Jess drawls.

“Okay, Mom. We’ll keep it clean. C’mon guys!”

Filling up with excitement, Capri and Spark eagerly leaves the kitchen to their bedroom with their Uncle Dreamfinder following behind them. They cut through the narrow halls of the house and up the stairs to the second floor. Figment and Alex are already standing by Capri’s bedroom door waiting for Capri and the others to show up. With everyone behind her, Capri opens the door and enters. It’s a small bedroom with one single bed and coming in is a dresser closet to the right of the door and a desk of blueprints to the left. The floor is littered with discarded papers and tools, revealing her interests in tinkering and building with her handiwork. The color inside is a warm, relaxing orange to fit the Florida essence. Posters of famous inventions and architectures made by Leonardo Da Vinci and others, as well as an old poster of the solar system where Pluto was still considered a planet are pinned and hanging on the walls. Messy and tiny as it looks, it’s still a comfy spot for one such dreamer to bring her dreams to life.

“So this is ‘Capri’s Cave of Creativity,’ I presume?” said Figment with glee.

“Sure is!” Capri replies with a big grin on her face. “Sorry it’s a little cluttered.”

“It’s full of clutter, it may as well be a gutter!” Spark jokes.

“Hey!”

“Nice place!” said Alex, trying to be polite.

“Cluttered floor, messy desk, tools all disorganized, and books stacked everywhere on the shelves and elsewhere…reminds me of my old lab back in London.” Dreamfinder reminisces happily. “Just…smaller.”

“Thanks!” Capri replies. “Yes, it’s small, but hey, it’s still my room altogether. Make yourself at home!”

“It’s been a long while since I first came here finding Capri making her own dream power.” Figment remembers aloud.

“I know! I can’t believe it’s already been over a year since that happened.”

“Sounds like you’ve all did a lot together in the past year.” Alex guesses, as he continues observing the room.

“Well, it was really just the one event when Uncle Dreamfinder and Figment first came to the Academy in this time period. Then after words, they came back over for a convention here in Orlando Florida and headed straight to California. By the way, how did that Disney Expo go?”

“Tell us! Tell us! That is a must!” said Spark with great anticipation.

“It was amazing!” Figment exclaims, as he jumps and flies over Capri’s bed. “There were so many events and history and foods and games and people, both dreamers and fans alike and a lot of them came over to our spot and watched us perform our imagination for them. The crowd was so happy and excited! That’s even where we first met up with Ra—”

“Uh…gee, Capri! It seems like you and Spark have been busy in here. ” Dreamfinder cuts off with a cough, trying to change the subject. “So, uh…where are the works that you wanted to show us?”

“Oh right!” Capri snaps out.

She rushes over to her closet in her excitement, swings the shutter-like doors wide open, and starts rummaging through it. Whatever that is coming out of that closet is a hailstorm of small gears, trinkets, old notes and dirty shirts. Finally, Capri grips onto a big box and struggles to carry it out. Alex, trying to be the “gentle-cat” for Capri, jumps in and helps her set it down on her bed next to Figment. The box is a little dusty off the top and on the sides there are words in bold black marker saying, “Capri Harmony’s Finals Project (2015).” 

“I’ve been working on this thing as part of my finals project after we defeated the Doubt and entered the Academy.” said Capri, opening the box and pulling out a small machine with two screens and a small group of tiny flashy light bulbs. “I hope you don’t mind, Uncle DF, but I’ve used a couple of your notes from the Mesmonic Converter to help me with this project.”

“I don’t see the harm in it.” said Dreamfinder. “So long as it’s still put into good use and doesn’t collect so much dust, I’m alright with it.”

“Super! Now as I was saying, after the Academy became overfilled with dream power in defeating the Doubtfinder, I was asked by Dr. Channing to help assist him part-time in figuring out what physical components are making this dream power form. But in order to reach the stage of actually testing out the dream power by hand, he assigned me to build a machine that would find dream power first. So I built this: The Dream Detector 2015!”

“Ooooooh!” Figment exclaims in awe. “How does it work?”

“I’m glad you asked. This machine can detect any source of dream power within a certain range. Originally, I had the radar reach out to about 50 miles away, but after making a few tweaks and a couple adjustments with the sensors and the screws I’ve gotten it to reach as far 80 miles! I had hoped to work with it a little more and have it reach at 100 miles by the time the next semester would start, but since Dr. Channing got fired today from hurting Fye and apparently keeping non-valid secrets in the Academy, I’m guessing there really isn’t much of a point in testing it any further.”

“I wouldn’t say that, Capri.” said Dreamfinder with his eyes lifted up and an assuring smile on his ginger-bearded face. “If you keep going at this, I’m more than sure you’ll be able to locate dream power throughout the entire world. And that would make it more worthwhile to research and share the possibilities of dream power with everyone.”

“Can we see it in action?” Alex asks.

“It already is.” said Capri. “I’ve had this thing going within the past few weeks running with both dream, solar and a little bit of wind power. This little green screen with the radar and the little beeping lights are what's locating the masses of dream power throughout Florida. Now you see this little needle on this seismogram? That draws out how big or small a mass of dream power is at a certain location. That average sized dot that’s beeping right now is coming from the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus location. Everywhere else from here to as far as near Clermont and Lakeland is scattered with small to medium sized bits of dream powers, which is saying quite a bit since the first news of you two arriving into the 21st century and reformed the Academy as what it is now.”

“That’s incredible!” Figment exclaims. “You’re so smart, Capri!”

“Whoop-dee-do! It’s true! It’s true!” Spark cheers.

“That’s pretty sick, Capri!” encouraged Alex. “And I mean that in the nicest way possible.”

“Well, thanks guys.” Capri blushes. “It’s kinda in my blood.”

“Our blood.” Dreamfinder corrects, holding up a smile of triumph. “As always, you’ve done me and your family proud.”

“Eeeeee!” Capri squeals. “I’m never gonna get tired of you saying that!”

Suddenly, the needle on the Dream Detector’s seismogram starts rapidly drawing out the lines on the screen. A new spot on the radar has popped up unexpectedly appearing a lot larger than all the other spots. Something big is on the horizon!

“Hey, we got something!” Capri exclaims. 

As the small lights start flashing asynchronously, everyone gathers around the machine and waits for the results. On the right side of the machine is a small opening slit where a small strip of paper is printing out. The strip stretches out and curls into a spiral with more and more paper coming out printed. When the printing finally stops, Capri rips the strip of paper clean off the machine and reads the following results.

“Oh boy! It’s big one!” Capri reveals. “Just now a huge mass of dream power has just erupted and spiked the seismogram, located in…in…what the heck?”

“What? Where is it?” Alex asks.

“Epcot Park, Orlando, Florida!”

“Epcot!” Figment exclaims in shock.

“That’s it!” Dreamfinder blurts out. “That’s the rapid climb of dream power Fye was talking about today! There’s dream power boiling and crawling all over the place! Enough to fill at least a quarter of the state with dreams and fantasies galore! Capri, you’re brilliant!”

“Thanks, Uncle DF!” Capri says happily. “That means a lot coming from you.”

“Are you thinking what I’ve thinking, Dreamfinder?” Figment asks, hoping from him and his creator to share the same idea in mind.

“I am, Figment, my friend! This may be the biggest find of dream power we may have come across on Earth.” Dreamfinder exclaims happily, tipping his top hat on his head. “Tomorrow, we’re going to Epcot!”


	36. Chapter 36

The dark night that’s slowly going by, despite its comforting Florida warmth, is not enough for Dreamfinder to fall asleep. He stares up to the ceiling on the living room couch with Figment sleeping on the other side where his feet are. His arms are crossed together and his expression is blank. It’s like he’s lost sight in his awareness. Perhaps he’s sleeping with his eyes open. That would be case if Dreamfinder weren’t blinking them every once in a while. He lets his eyes trace the lines of the wooden ceiling trying to sleep to take his mind into a fanciful bliss, but nothing’s happening. His eyes are still wide open and it’s starting to annoy him. As the Dreamfinder, it’s obvious he has to sleep to come up with some dreams every night. Tonight has become one of those nights where he wishes his dreams would take him far away from his troubles like they always did. He quietly sighs heavily with each passing minute.

The thoughts of what had occurred, the short talk with Jess, and the plans to travel to Epcot Park has his mind whirling and body motionless he didn’t even notice his foot twitch from its sleep and giving Figment a small kick in the rib. The little dragon quickly scrunches tightly at the kick and then slowly opens his big yellow eyes open halfway. He turns his head to Dreamfinder and notices how wide-awake he still is.

“What’s wrong, Dreamfinder?” Figment yawns. “You can’t sleep?” 

“I have a lot in my mind, Figment.” said Dreamfinder in a boring and tired tone. “I just never imagined everything that’s happened today to just…well…happen!”

“I know, pal. I was surprised, too. We all were! But that’s still no reason to dwell in the past for so long when there’s already going to be a brand new day waiting to greet you. And everyone knows you can’t meet that new day without any S-L-E-E-P, sleep. How about I tell you a story?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s see now…once upon a time, there was a man who traveled the world searching for…for a…a wonderful thing! The man didn’t know what kind of thing he was looking for, so it made his search harder and harder. One day, the man, he…he came across a little flying reptile—”

“A dragon, Figment?” Dreamfinder clarifies sarcastically.

“Yeah, a dragon!” Figment exclaims. “This dragon flew up to the man and guided him through many hard obstacles through jungles and mountains and oceans and deserts galore. Taking a quick break for tea, the man watches a woman go by. She was beautiful and fair with long locks of brown and eyes as earthy as…Earth. As she skips by, the man follows her, followed by the dragon. He chased her high and low with his heart beating loud like drums and his eyes as big as baseballs. Finally the man caught up to her and realized that this woman was the ‘wonderful thing’ he had been searching for. And just when the man was about to express his feelings for her, the woman, she—”

“She slaps the Chairman and runs away.” Dreamfinder states, killing the mood. “Figment, I know your story is really about me and Rachel. And it’s not helping me out at all.”

“Oh, you do? Oh, you do?! …Well you’re right.” said Figment with defeat. And then he comes up with another idea saying, “Hey, how about a glass of milk?”

“I’m too full from supper.”

“How about soft music?”

“Not in the mood.”

“Counting sheep?” Figment suggests.

“Mmm…no, but go ahead and try anyway.” Dreamfinder agrees.

“Yay!” 

Figment flies out of the covers and flies out the window. The window opens and, with the power of him imagination, he transforms himself into a purple sheep prancing from the windowsill to another in multiples. More and more Figment sheep leap in a single file as they happily chant the sheepish cries. 

“Baa!” Figment chants. “Baa! Baa! Baa! How ya’ doin, Dreamfinder? Baa! Baa! Feeling sleepy yet? Baa! Baa!”

“1…2…3…” Dreamfinder yawns “…4…5…10…36…twenty—no Figment, wait! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!”

“What’s wrong now, Dreamfinder?” Figment stops.

“I’m watching you turn into sheep,” Dreamfinder starts, rubbing his eyes, “I start thinking of you, then I start thinking of ‘ewe,’ which is a different spelling meaning ‘sheep,’ and in Hebrew, Rachel means ‘sheep.’ So now I’m thinking of Rachel all over again and I’m picturing her constantly bouncing by. Therefore, I still can’t sleep!”

“Aw, Dreamfinder!” Figment moans, as he changes back to his dragon self and hovers down over the couch.

“It’s hard, Figment. It’s so hard. It’s not like I can just forget today in an instant.”

“You know what I think? I don’t think you’re really mad at Rachel at all.”

“What?”

“I mean, I’d imagine you being upset at her taking that spark away in general is a good enough reason—”

“Yes…I suppose it was necessary for her to have done it. It did need to be freed.”

“But it’s obvious that what Rachel did today was really more of a service to both the Academy Lucidus and maybe herself, too. And the way you reacted when Rachel ran off from the Academy? You’re not upset that Rachel stole that spark. You’re upset that she left. Left the journey, left us...left you.”

“And this helps…how?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Because it’s the truth.” Figment replies. “And the sooner you accept this hidden truth, the faster you’ll heal.”

“Have you been reading one of my books in the Dream Machine?”

“No, I read something about some psychological situations in one of the books on your shelves back in London.”

“The Chairman’s nuts for not accepting you into the Academy in the beginning.”

“All I’m saying is that even though Rachel may be gone, you’ll still get to remember the good times you—we had with her.”

“…”

“Why did you really decide to allow a guest into one of our journeys through imagination? I mean, really?”

“Figment…I…” Dreamfinder could not finish his sentence.

“Other than having me around as your imaginary friend, you’re lonely.” Figment reveals.

“…”

“Dreamfinder?”

“…You didn’t need imagination to figure that one out.” said Dreamfinder.

“Then why Rachel?” Figment calmly asks.

“She’s…I don’t know. In London, I’ve seen very beautiful women throughout my life, including this girl from my childhood, Victoria Hemmisworth.”

“Oh, I remember her! The girl with the blonde locks and the green eyes you had such a big crush on in your elementary school.”

“Yes, that one. Of course, that didn’t work out well. From then on, London was full of lovely women in all the lower, middle and higher classes and yet, added that I never had the time for a relationship since I was struggling to provide for my family, none of them appealed to me. And then in the past year after we arrived in the twenty-first century, I’ve seen many lovely women roaming about and I still couldn’t find a woman to love. But coming to California…at the expo…seeing her before me offstage…wow! I only insisted on bringing Rachel onstage as a volunteer for our performance just so I could stand next to her. And in just a matter of seconds, I got to know her name and where she lived. And the potential she has in imagining things to come to life; the way she managed to fly? I didn’t even expect the results to come out just like that. It was as if that…that…if there was ever a mirror that you could walk up to that shows who and what your other half, your soul mate would look like, it was Rachel’s reflection I saw looking back at me…and for once in my life I felt like a whole man. I had hoped in my heart that she wasn’t a dream, but a dream come true. And thank heavens she is! I’ve never imagined how a girl like Rachel would have been crafted so carefully, so lovingly, and so perfect for me. I wanted her so bad, Figment. She’s beautiful, she’s kind and funny and bright and, at one point or another, brave. And the way she treats her friends like Flora and Álvaro and us…she’s all I ever wanted, Figment…all I ever want. It kills me still to see her all broken up inside and out. And imagining her father not raising her well to be the beautiful woman she is meant to be as she’s told me numerous times just infuriates me! I mean, why?! Why, why, why, why, why? Why would he…why would anyone cause her grief? Why did I? …And that’s what got her to run away in the first place. She ran away from home, her family, her friends, her life, and now me. She ran away from me because she’s scared. She was scared of being mistreated again by me. But, Figment?” 

“Yes?” Figment whispers.

“I…I…” Dreamfinder stutters. And then he sobs, “I did hurt her. The threats, the slapping, and everything that I did out of my anger and frustration, I did to her. I never wanted to hurt her. I wanted to love her. Figment, I love her!

All of a sudden, Dreamfinder pulls Figment into his arms and cries loudly on Figment’s shoulder. His arms are tightly wrapped around his dragon friend’s body. The wings on Figment’s back are squeezing and pressing in behind his back. His small purple head is raised up to the ceiling with his unnoticeable ears listening in torture of Dreamfinder’s heartbreaking crying. But Figment smiles softly and firmly hugs Dreamfinder back. His warmth enters his creator’s chest as he nestles his head onto Dreamfinder’s shoulder. Though his arms could not reach all the way around Dreamfinder’s body, he’s making Dreamfinder feel safe and secure again despite the agony his creator is having.

“It’s okay, Dreamfinder.” Figment murmurs. “I know you do.”

“I love her, Figment.” sobbed Dreamfinder. “I love her so much. I want her back. I want her with me.”

“I know.”

“Figment…I’m going to find her. I’ll find her even if I have tear through every portal to every realm imaginable! No matter how long it takes…forever, if even.”

“And I’ll be there with you when you do.”

The sobbing continues on until Dreamfinder finally starts to calm down. His eyes have all been drained out and his tight wrapping arms relax. Drenched in tears, the Dreamfinder finally closes his eyes and sobs himself to sleep the rest of the night off with Figment sleeping on top of him and in his arms. The young dragon’s humming and sleepy sighing has soothed Dreamfinder to fall from dusk to dawn in his blissful fantasies once again.

********************************************************************************************************

The morning light of the Florida sun brightens up the entire sky with its ever-changing transformation of color. The night was a dark violet, then a light pink and yellow orange, to a bright crystal blue. The palm trees rise to greet the day as the sun radiates off their luscious green branches that spreads like a over blooming of flowers. Like yesterday the clouds, white and fluffy as they are, soar high and fly with the gentle wind. The ocean tides receded overnight as the night chill started getting warmer. It’s a new day in Cocoa, Florida.

“I’m sure gonna miss you guys.” said Alex.

As it turns out, much to Spark and Capri’s delight, Jess Harmony agrees to let Alex stay with them until he completes his studies at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. The Dream Machine is parked right outside the house and on the street, ready to set sail to Epcot in a sea of clouds and sky. Seeing Dreamfinder and Figment out, Capri, Spark, Jess and Alex Wavers are about to say their goodbyes.

“We’ll miss you, too, Alex.” said Figment.

“It’s certainly nice of you to take Alex into your home, Jess.” said Dreamfinder in good spirits.

“Well, you’ve helped Capri get into the Academy in the first place.” said Jess warmly. “It’s the least we can do.”

“I wish you can stay longer. You’ll come back again, won’t you Uncle Dreamfinder?” Capri pleadingly asks.

“Of course we will!” said Dreamfinder. “For whatever occasion that comes up we’ll both be here. And we’ll definitely be here when the two of you graduate from the Academy.”

“That’s right!” said Figment with excitement. “And then we’ll celebrate it together with a big party with balloons and ice cream and games and everything!”

“Awesome!” said Capri happily.

“Bibbity-bun! That’ll be fun!” Spark rhymes.

“Still the King of Rhyming!” said Figment. “Don’t ever change.”

“Well, I guess we’d better get going.” said Dreamfinder.

“Have you got everything?” Jess asks. “Your map, your lunches, disguises, and groceries and our phone numbers?”

“Yes, we’ve got them, Jess. Thank you.”

“Check, double, and tripled checked!” Figment said. “We’re all set to go!”

“Good luck, you guys!” said Alex. “You’ll keep me posted on what happens over there, right?”

“You bet’cha! And we’ll fill you in on all the juicy details as we go along if we can. Maybe we’ll be able to bring back something neat.” 

“I wish you the best of luck, Alex.” said Dreamfinder, offering his hand for a handshake. “Study hard.”

“I will, sir. Thank you.” Alex breaks off the handshake and hugs both Dreamfinder and Figment together saying, “Oh, and uh…if you see Rachel again out there, give her my thanks, too.”

“We will. Let’s go, Figment!”

Packed with the essentials Jess had provided them, Dreamfinder and Figment step off the front porch of the house and board back onto the Dream Machine with Dreamfinder on his pilot’s seat and Figment perched on the railing behind him. The Dreamfinder starts pushing and pulling the levers and switches to the start the Dream Machine and sure enough, with puffs of dream power exhausting from the pipes, the dirigible starts levitating from the ground. As the Dream Machine lifts up, the two heroes watch their friends—family waving to them and shrinking smaller and smaller as they go higher.

“Don’t stop dreaming, everyone!” Dreamfinder calls down to them from above, tipping his hat and waving goodbye.

With a pull of one lever, the Dream Machine starts flying west, further inland in the state of Florida. As they press farther forward away, the Harmony residence and the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus appear to shrink tinier and tinier until both locations are not visible anymore. Who knows how long it will be until they return again? Neither of them knew, but what matters most now is moving forward, never looking back. 

So Dreamfinder and Figment start their trip to the very heart of the Florida state: Orlando. As they soar through the clouds, they notice their shadow of the Dream Machine swimming below them on the cloudy surface and diving to and up from the green-earthed ground. Flying at the height they are above sea level, hardly anyone had noticed the Dream Machine floating by. But those that did would point up to the sky and wave their arms and hands up to them hoping they would get a wave back in return. Only Figment was able to notice a few of them and return the gesture while Dreamfinder, who he tipped his hat to some folks down below, focused on keeping the dirigible steady at this current altitude. 

About forty minutes have passed by since they left Cocoa City and have now arrived in Orlando. To the southern western area of the county is Walt Disney World, the place where one out of four parks is their destination: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. Seeing as how it is very populated in Orlando, the Dreamfinder carefully lowers the Dream Machine down through the clouds and glides above the city. Hopefully, with all of the Disney Universal Parks down there to distract the civilians, they won’t notice a small blimp hovering down the surface and floating over to Epcot.

This is the first time Dreamfinder and Figment have ever been to Epcot. They have been told about the one certain attraction that was solely dedicated to them and their adventures and what the story plot in it is about, but not once have they ever been inside. There has been word that the “original version” where they had Dreamfinder portrayed in it with Figment was the best version of the, apparently, three versions the ride underwent. But when they took out the “Disney Dreamfinder” out, everyone became really upset. This bitter attitude of his disappearance may have sweetened up a bit when the real Dreamfinder and Figment first showed themselves to the twenty-first century after defeating the Articulate Army in 1910 and traveled forth in time. 

The problem in Dreamfinder and Figment’s fame, however, may work against them on their mission to find the spark of dream power in the park. So long as the dream duo remains famous, they fear that flocks of Disney fans will come crowding them into a corner and assume Disney had finally organized their Disney version’s return. If they get caught, they’ll never get away.

To avoid anyone from seeing them, Dreamfinder drives the Dream Machine around the far western side of the Epcot park through a small stream with two aisles of trees behind a winding road in the backstage areas of Epcot on their left side, or as some Disney Cast Members would call it the “Avenue of the Stars,” and a road called “Epcot Resorts Boulevard” to their right. Following the map Capri and Jess had given them, Figment tells Dreamfinder to park the Dream Machine behind some trees on the Avenue of Stars where ahead of them is a pathway cutting through the backstage entrance between the United Kingdom Pavilion and O Canada!. With the Dream Machine completely turned off, the two of them slip back into the cabin in the back and change into the disguises they were given. Dreamfinder strips off his traditionally vintage blue dress coat and pants, top hat and red violet vest and dresses up in his white shirt with a red tie, plaid vest, beige paperboy hat, blue pants and his black shoes. Meanwhile, Figment gets dressed up in an American patriotic outfit with a striped and starry Uncle Same hat, a dark blue dress jacket filled with white stars, and the American flag. 

Fully dressed in their disguises they cover up their transportation with some leaves and tree branches for camouflage, making sure the Dream Machine remains unrecognizable for the time being. Dreamfinder takes Figment in one of his arms and a bag of his own clothes in another starts walking through the streets of the back lot. Tens of real Cast Members are roaming about going about their own businesses and not one of them took interest in them. With the right kind of clothing, especially if it’s made specifically for Disney employees, it can hard to tell who is real or fake. Those that were watching them as they are passing by can only see Dreamfinder, not as the “Dreamfinder,” but an ordinary Cast Member with a “plush” Figment doll in his American ensemble. All Figment can do for now is keep up a fake smile and non-blinking eyes to fool the staff as Dreamfinder carries him through the streets. Once they found themselves completely alone, Figment gasps for breath and pants.

Taking a look at the Google Map of the park’s backstage area Capri had printed out for them, they come an intersection on the road leading either forward or to their left. Should they go forward, they’ll be entering the “O Canada!” Pavilion. Should they go to the left, they’ll find themselves right behind the “Journey Into Imagination with Figment” building where the ride is housed in. Shooting for the obvious solution, the Dreamfinder and his Figment in disguises turn leftward towards the Imagination Pavilion.

Just like the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, the main design of the building has its two giant glass pyramids with its blue glass cover and steel pipe triangles for its geometric shape. The only difference is the way the area is laid out. It’s like walking through an outside garden in a department on the outside where the public could see, while in the back it looks all dull and empty. There’s nothing imaginable about a backstage parking lot. 

They search everywhere around the back of the pavilion, but there doesn’t seem to be a way inside. There are few doors and some delivery spots, but none of them are opened up. With each jiggle and jerk on the doorknobs, they find that every possible entrance into the Imagination Pavilion is completely locked shut.

“Now what?” Figment asks through his teeth, trying to keep his smile up as he spots a couple more Cast Members walking by.

The Dreamfinder looks closely at his map and realizes that there is only one possible way to get inside the building.

“Okay, here’s the plan…” Dreamfinder breathes down to his companion. “We’ll keep heading north through this street and take a right at that big tree at the other end of the building, cut through Performing Arts section all the way forward and then turn right again through the entrance. There should be another room at the end of the ride where the Imageworks is. That’s where Capri and Fye have both said the sparks of dream power may be found at.”

“But that means we’ll have to go inside the park where the guests are first.” Figment points out. “If people find out who we are under these costumes, we’ll never get inside the pavilion!”

“Then we’ll have to be quick. I’ve seen everyone at the expo hurrying themselves all over the place back in California. With four parks here in Florida, the pace of each Cast Member and guest are bound to be increasing more than double at least. Other than being a grown man in uniform holding a toy everywhere he’s going, no offense, Figment, I don’t think anyone should be able to notice us walking by. Besides, it’s a pretty short distance from here.”

“If you say so, Dreamfinder. I believe you all the way.”

“Good. Just keep a straight face until we get inside.”

“Then ready…steady…go!”

Enthused with the plan, Figment allows himself for Dreamfinder to carry him through the rest of the street and into the park. The Dreamfinder speed-walks his way through the empty street while there was still nobody around. He reaches up to the large tree on the corner of the building and immediately turns right like a drill sergeant. This small concrete pathway leads only to the small section of the Disney Performing Arts, which is the seldom-populated sector of the Imagination Pavilion inside the park. Dreamfinder pulls the door and once he closes it behind him, it’s now tome for Figment to, once again, fake his existence with an open blank smile. Figment leans over and hangs over Dreamfinder’s arm, making himself look like a doll being carried off, not a dragon. It’s become not easy for Dreamfinder to carry Figment like that with only one arm, but he lets it lie for now. What’s more important right now is to get inside the Imagination Pavilion as quick as possible.

Just ahead and to the right is the entrance inside to the ride. The Dreamfinder quickens his pace even faster, but what should be in front of them but a flock of guests and tourists swarming all over the pavilion. Despite his feeling of discouragement and the sweat he is starting to feel run down his forehead, he manages to keep a straight face. The guests see them passing by throw out a greeting to Dreamfinder, giving him the opportunity to smile back and greet them. Moving on, the Dreamfinder makes an immediate beeline to the inside the Imagination Pavilion where another Cast Member suddenly stops him.

“Oh, pardon me!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “What’s all this then?”

“The pavilion’s closed off, pal.” said the other Cast Member. “We’re getting complaints on a gas leak spewing out some pink smoke all over the interior of the building and affecting the guests.”

“Dream power!” Figment grunts quietly through his teeth.

“Is it serious?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Of course it’s serious!” the Cast Member yells. “You should know that we can’t have anything this serious cause a potential harm on our guests. Especially with something as unfamiliar as that smoke.”

“What if it isn’t smoke?”

“Makes it all the more worrisome. So at any rate, no one’s getting in there until the problem is solved. I’m estimating that it’ll take a couple days, maybe a week, to get the fumes out if possible.”

“A few days? I don’t have that much time.”

“Why? Have you got something important in there?”

“Well…what if I told you that this ‘pink smoke’ you’re referring to is not so dangerous as anyone thinks and I know what that actually is?” Dreamfinder asks.

“I’d ask how you would you know.” said the Cast Member as he puts his hands on his waist.

Then Dreamfinder whispers, “I’ve actually dealt with stuff before and this pink smoke inside the building is actually called ‘dream power.’ And I would know this because I’m the Dreamfinder.”

“Be serious.”

“I am!” 

“Hmm…you do look a little bit like him. The ginger hair, the beard and mustache, the height, the British accent, but that could be anyone really.”

“Look in my bag. My whole outfit is inside!” Dreamfinder opens his duffle bag with his clothes inside. As the Cast Member gets a good long look at with is a surprised look on his face, Dreamfinder smiles. “Well?”

“No way!” exclaimed the Cast Member. “You?”

“Me! But you can’t tell anyone that we’re here.”

“We? …Wait. So that Figment doll is really…?”

“Figment! He’s just pretending to be a toy so no one would notice.”

“Hello, hello, hello!” Figment grunts through his smiling teeth again.

“Aww…this is not real!” the Cast Member says in his hype. “But wait a second. Since when did you get a job here with Disney? And not that it’s not relevant for you to be here since you two are practically icons here in Epcot, but what’s so important about going into the Imagination Pavilion in secret?”

“We think that there’s a massive amount of dream power, the stuff that helps people’s dreams come true, is floating about in the building and we’ve been assigned to investigate it. If you or someone in charge could let us in, we’d be grateful.”

“Yes, please help!” Figment grunts. “My mouth is starting cramp.”

“Look. I’d love to help, but whether or not you are Figment and the Dreamfinder, I still can’t let you in. Orders from the top management and the health services say so. If I let you in, they’re gonna think I’ve let some bystanding guest or coworker go in and get hurt and I’ll get in trouble.”

“Oh dear.” Dreamfinder sighs.

“That’s a shame, huh Dreamfinder?” said Figment quietly.

“Yes, it is.”

“…Okay look.” the Cast Member sighs with guilt, as he check around him for any eavesdroppers. “There is another entrance in the backside of the building. Three or more actually, and one of them can get you inside the ride.”

“We’ve checked all the doors already.” said Dreamfinder. “They’re all locked.”

“I have a key. Take it. You can use it to get into the door from the right side of the very back of the building that will take you straight inside. Just drop the key next to the street lamp closest to the door outside and I can get it later.”

“Thank you, sir…uh…Carl. Thank you, Carl!”

“Yes, thank you Carl!” Figment grunts happily.

“My pleasure.” said the very pleased Cast Member with a blush. “Say uh…before you go, would you mind giving me your autograph? My wife and kids and I just love you guys and what you do so much.”

“Why, of course!” said Dreamfinder willingly. “Just don’t tell anyone about this. Okay?”

Nodding, the Cast Member takes out a pen and paper and hands it to Dreamfinder to sign. The Dreamfinder finishes his signature with a flourish and an encouraging message. He then turns his body away from the crowd, hiding behind Carl and hands the book down to Figment. Figment eagerly grabs the book and signs his name on it. As a bonus, he covers the entire palm of his hand with the pen’s ink and stamps a handprint on another page. That should be more than enough proof for Carl to take home and explain to his family that he’s met the world’s famous and most realistic living dragon.

“Thank you so much!” said Carl in his excitement.

“You’re very welcome, Carl.” said Dreamfinder with a smile. “Give our regards to your family.”

“I will! Just do me a favor. Please be careful! I believe you when you say that there’s dream power inside the ride but if you somehow get hurt, let alone being allowed inside when you’re not supposed to in this matter, I’ll likely never be able to live it down by anyone for the rest of my life.”

“We’ll be careful.” Figment grunts.

“Cheerio!” said Dreamfinder, tipping his hat. 

As Dreamfinder casually walks away from Carl with Figment still in his arms, he notices some of the guests passing by giving him weird looks and whispering to each other. He wondered did anyone figure out that it’s them? Do they see through the fake Cast Member costume? He didn’t have time to answer all of those questions himself. As quickly as he could, without looking so obviously, Dreamfinder carries Figment back through the way they came into the park away from the guests.

Once back inside, they remember Cast Member Carl’s directions of an open entrance and head straight for it. Just as before, they make a turn left and walk all the way down the short road back towards that one fork. To their left, at the very corner of the Imagination Pavilion’s backstage building, there is the one door again. One of which Carl was just talking about. Seeing that there is surprisingly no one around, Dreamfinder takes the chance to sneak over to the door to open it. Once there, Figment hands over the key Carl gave them. Dreamfinder takes the key and slips it into the lock and turns clockwise. The locks inside unfasten and the door slightly opens at Dreamfinder’s push.

It’s dark inside with the exception of a couple lamplights hanging from the ceiling. The Dreamfinder enters the interior backlot of the Imagination Pavilion with Figment, who is now free from his stiffened state. Figment sneaks back outside with the key in hand and drops it right next to the closest street lamp in the grass just as they were instructed to do and quickly flutters back inside. As they close the door behind them, they cautiously walk down the corridor. There are a few doors to their left side. Only one of them is open. From that open door, they can hear the booming loop of the attraction’s soundtrack filling the atmosphere and the voices of the animatronic Figments, the “One Little Spark” song, and another familiar sounding voice.

Dreamfinder turns the handle to that unlocked door and enters through it with Figment behind him. Through the door, they find themselves standing in the room just after the “Smell Lab” scene where the attraction’s Figment shows the audience about smelling with imagination. The cars have all stopped on their tracks due to the effect of the supposed dream power inside affecting the guests. A large capsule to their right connected by various smaller pipes portrays as a kind of “slot machine of smell,” as fans would say. As the fans would see it, the Figment of this attraction would bust into the slot machine and roll it until it shows a picture of Figment wearing a skunk out, sprays his skunk smell (which is equivalent to the smell of burnt coffee beans), and the audience goes about their way through the rest of the ride.

“I do that?” Figment asks aloud with disgust. “This clearly isn’t what we were told about this ride.”

“Figment, look!” Dreamfinder exclaims as he points to the air.

Right above the dream duo is a mass of a strange, sparkling, pinkish-violet-colored cloud floating about. Sure enough, they immediately recognize that this is what both Dreamfinder and Figment have come for.

“Dream power!” Figment shouts with excitement. “A whole lot of it!”

“Carl says that the entire building is filled with this stuff right about now, so we may have found the ultimate jackpot!”

“Yippee! It’s the end of the rainbow! But where’s it coming from?”

“Let’s see…” Dreamfinder starts observing the dream power cloud thoroughly. A majority of the dream power he sees is all floating up towards the ceiling. Further in the distance he discovers an odd trail leading somewhere. Dreamfinder points his finger out and traces it back behind him. “Figment, look. It’s all trailing down there…behind us…through that door a couple of feet down the track.”

“I’ll go check it out.” said Figment.

“Be careful!”

Figment follows the trail to the door it seems to be streaming from. The dream power is slowly leaking out of a crack from inside that door like puffs of ashes spewing from a tiny volcano on the ocean ground. On the window there are painted words saying, “Dream Lab.”

“Hey Dreamfinder, come here!” Figment calls out.

“What it is, Figment?” Dreamfinder calls back as he walks back to his flying friend.

“Look what this door says: Dream Lab—Dream Testing in Progress. This looks promising, doesn’t it?”

“It certainly seems to be. The question is can we get inside? If so, how? And is it dangerous?”

At that last question, Dreamfinder and Figment abruptly look at each other funny. They then burst out into laughter together. The thought of imagination being dangerous, although it can happen on such occasions, is just plain hilarious to think about.

“Did you really just—?” Figment giggles, unable to finish his question.

“I don’t know why I just asked that last question.” Dreamfinder chuckles. “Let’s just go in and see where this is coming from.

Dreamfinder, aiming his fist at the crack where the dream power is leaking out of, punches onto the glass and breaks through it. The second he does this, a giant puff of the dream power blushes through their faces and blowing as Dreamfinder’s top hat as his arm clenches and turns up and around, trying to get his hand onto the doorknob on the other side. His hand finally grabs a hold of the doorknob. He jiggles and jerks it up and down until he roughly breaks the lock inside and opens the door. Out of the door comes a giant thick fog of sparkling dream power, blinding both Dreamfinder and Figment from seeing anything that’s in front of them…whatever it is.

“Oh, my word! Figment?” Dreamfinder calls out.

“I’m here, Dreamfinder!” Figment shouts with his eyes tightly shut. “Where are you?”

“Here! I’m still standing in front of the door! Grab my hand!”

“Where? I don’t see it!”

Dreamfinder, blinded by the dream power overwhelming his sight and retrieving his hat, reaches both of his arms out for Figment. They both wave frantically as they search for the little dragon, swishing away the dream power from blinding Dreamfinder more. All of a sudden, the back of Dreamfinder’s right hand rams onto Figment’s thigh. He grabs onto the dragon’s ankle and pulls him tightly back into his arms.

“Figment, are you okay?” Dreamfinder asks.

“I’m okay, Dreamfinder!” said Figment. “Are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“What do we do now?”

“We can't stop here.” answered Dreamfinder. “We’ve got to keep moving forward. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready when you are, buddy!” said Figment, giving a thumb’s up of assurance.

With their eyes squinting open, Dreamfinder and Figment push through this thick fog and into the door. Whatever fears they must have, which is unlikely, are being put behind as they press onward. The deeper they walk in, the thinner the fog is getting. Once they finally have the ability to see again, they find the room completely dark; a total pitch-blackness surrounds them where it seems there is no floor, wall or ceiling. There doesn’t seem to be any furniture placed around them in the dark to block their way. It’s as if they’ve just stepped into a realm of complete nothingness.

Suddenly, as Dreamfinder places another foot forward, he misses a step and starts falling down face forward. Figment slips out of Dreamfinder’s arms as the force of gravity pulls them both down the seemingly long dark pit. Who knows how far or deep down the ground is from the top. Screams from both Dreamfinder and Figment are let out as they continue falling down. Down, down, down into the deep dark abyss of the Imagination Pavilion.


	37. Chapter 37

The team of two dreamers are being engulfed in the dark as black night as they are plummeting down to who knows where. Wherever it is they are going, it’s obvious that they’re likely not going to land on anything soft. Dreamfinder and Figment hold each other together as they continue down screaming, trying their best not to separate. It is the empty void of darkness that is probably scarier to them right about now than it is just falling, for neither one of them knows where or when there will be any sight of light again or will it be deemed safe for them to land on.

“Dreamfinder!” Figment shouts.

“Figment!” Dreamfinder shrieks. “Hang on!”

“I don’t think that door was any laughing matter!”

“Gee, really?!” sassed Dreamfinder, sarcastically.

“How far down do you think this goes on?”

“Something soft, I hope! Look!”

Coming up below them is a small speck of light growing bigger and bigger as they get closer and closer. Is it a portal to another world, the end of the long fall down to this unplanned destination, or perhaps the doorway to their demise? Whatever it is, there is no turning back.

“Get close to me, Figment!” Dreamfinder shouts.

As they continue falling, Figment grabs onto Dreamfinder’s arm. Dreamfinder’s back is against the light shining below. Just as he once tried to save Rachel as best as possible, he wants to make sure Figment get the chance of a softer landing in the end. The light grows bigger, coming closer, setting both of their heartbeats in a rapid speed. This kind of fall, however, is not new to them. As used to it as they could get, it still remains as a huge fright-riser for the both of them. They each hold each other tightly, bracing themselves for the hurt that awaits them on the surface ground.

But just as a single thread on Dreamfinder’s vest touches the very barrier of the upcoming light, they seem to falling a lot more slower, as if…floating down. One of Figment’s tightly closed eyes opens slightly. He looks down below and realizes the slow going they are now in. He taps the tip of his dragon claw onto Dreamfinder’s shoulder and prompts him to look down. Dreamfinder opens both of his eyes next, astonished and relieved that they are both drifting down in the safest manner possible. 

“I guess we haven’t reached a ‘dead end’ after all, huh?” Figment giggles.

“Don’t say ‘dead,’ Figment! ” Dreamfinder snaps. “We still don’t know where we’re going other than down.”

“Dreamfinder, look! I see a door!”

Indeed, there is. As Dreamfinder and Figment float closer down to the light a door appears to their view. They scan the door as they keep lowering down. The door looks as if it is over 50 feet tall! It is rusted over a golden orange chrome and large gilded handle. The wood on the door is slowly deteriorating as they see some wooden chips still cracking and chipping off. Whatever chips come off end up turning into dust as they fall and touch the ground.

Finally, the Dreamfinder and Figment both safely touch their feet to the surface of the floor with Dreamfinder’s top hat slowly floating down into Figment’s hands, giving it back to his creator. They each exchange looks back at each other while also glancing at the large door in front of them. Their only source of light at this time is a long-range spotlight shining like a pillar above them like they are on a stage. The question of what this door is and what is behind it still remains.

“Wowie-wow!” exclaims Figment.

“Wowie-wow, indeed!” Dreamfinder repeats. “It is as big as the old Academy Scientifica-Lucidus location back in London.”

“That is one BIG door! But how do we get in?” Figment asks, as he observes the door.

“Hmm…we could fly up to the handle and try to pull it open.” Dreamfinder suggests. “Or maybe we can imagine ourselves growing tall enough to reach it. No! We’ll just say ‘open sesame’ like Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves did and let it open itself!”

“Dreamfinder!” Figment calls out. He flutters towards the door and finds another knob, about average-actual sized. He grabs onto it and pulls it to him, making another smaller door open— a secret door! Cobwebs are being pulled out and hanging down and across the arch into larger webs. Thankfully, the webs are feint to the touch and there aren’t any spiders.

“Yes well, or, uh— we can just go through this smaller door.” Dreamfinder stammers conspicuously with a blush in his cheeks.

Without thinking of what dangerous possibilities could lead them for the worst, they both enter through the smaller sized door and into the even-more darker darkness that comes with it.

But suddenly, at the touch of Dreamfinder’s foot on the floor inside, a puff of the supposed “dream-powered” pink smoke starts rising dramatically and spreads out throughout the room like an epidemic. The dream power is bringing in some light for them to see around them. It rises to the ceiling, blowing away whatever light weighted object there is out of view for more and more light to come in. As the dream power surrounds the Dream Duo, it magically changes Dreamfinder’s clothes back to his official blue dress suit look. As the light shines brighter, the room they’ve entered begins to illuminate.

Right before them is a vast foyer, broken and crumbled with pieces of walls and pillars and broken glass shards scattered about. A floor of a staircase is where they enter from on a red carpet filled with dirt, mold and dried leaves below them. Branches of wild stray vines are growing in every crevasse that can be see, including the broken glass top floor in the middle of the room where giant rusted gears are sitting there useless, twisted in position, and motionless. Under some debris and greenery are some run-down, but originally well fashioned and whimsy looking doors. There are pieces that are missing from each of them and they all have equal multiple layers of dirt, rust, and dust covering them, as well as multitudes of corners filled with spider webs and cobwebs. There are neon lights broken down, the paints in this room are chipping, the vines are slowly, yet quickly growing bigger and taller as the eye can see; everything in this room is a complete wreck! Despite all of this, the sight of this foyer has only increased the excitement and curiosity of our heroes.

“Whoa!” gasped Dreamfinder with his jaws completely dropped.

“It’s like dream power heaven!” exclaimed Figment. “Look at this place: ‘Art,’ ‘Sound,’ ‘Flowers,’ a ‘Library,’ a ‘Rainbow Tunnel?’ How is this all here?”

“Indeed…how? Where are we? What is this place?”

“I dunno, but let’s check it out anyway! There’s bound to be something nifty we can find around here.”

“Very well, but let’s be very careful.” Dreamfinder warns. “There’s no telling what is safe or not if we just dash through everything recklessly.”

“Alrighty then!” Figment agrees. “Now let’s see…which way should we go?”

“So many choices!” Dreamfinder says as his excitement begins to build up. “How are we to decide which path to take?”

“Mo!”

“Mo?”

“Sure! Eenie…meenie…miney…mo! I choose…there! Let’s go there first!”

Figment starts heading towards the door that says “Flowers.” A mass of branches and vines are growing from behind the busted door. The door is pentagon shaped with dirtied yellow round bumps resembling flower petals. The middle of the door has a small mirror in the middle with and orange sign above it spelling “The Garden of Imagination” and purple flowers sprouting out like it’s a picture of a flowerpot. Figment tries to pull the door open, but his little purple arms would not make it budge. So Dreamfinder steps in and helps Figment pull it with all of the strength he had that was necessary. The door opens with a loud screech from its rusty joints. Puffs of dust from the ground rises up to where the two friends would inhale it and make them cough. They enter the garden and find the whole place just as wrecked as the foyer. This room resembles very much like a greenhouse filled with strange-looking, but dead plants. The air is cold and musty and moist with mold and rot growing almost everywhere in sight. The plants are dried and withered as they lie on the ground like corpses. Very few streams of light are shooting through whatever small cracks there are on the walls and the ceilings. The signs that depict what plants are here have words those has faded overtime and are filled with holes eaten by whatever kind of bug life was left. The glass windows and rot iron materials that hold the structure of this particular greenhouse are cracked and rusted.

“Kind of eerie in here, huh?” Figment asks in a slight shiver in her scales.

“Yes…yes, it is.” muttered Dreamfinder. “Just think, with this much plant life dead, imagine how much life there must have been previously when this was in its heyday.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I’ll bet you that all the hay must be dried up, too.”

“It’s a shame. I would have loved to see what their beauty must have looked like—”

“EEK!” Figment shrieks. He rushes to hide behind Dreamfinder and into his blue coat to shiver.

“Figment! What’s wrong?” Dreamfinder asks to his surprise.

“D-d-d-d-down there!” Figment points to the ground. 

Below them is a rose…a really big rose! It’s got to be the largest rose they have ever seen. Its large dried up stem and leaves on the sides lying there limbless and its large wrinkled head as red and dead as dried blood. But the flower’s size is not what has scared Figment; it’s what was in the head that did it. Looking closely at it, you can see that there was not just a bundle, but a face within it! Its eyes are closed and relieved in death. It possessed a mouth with lips that were once as luscious as they could be, but are now chapped and declined. As if this rose was once as lively as human could be, it looks as if it died as one, too, much to the fear and pity from the Dreamfinder and Figment.

“My word!” exclaimed Dreamfinder. “A rose with a face! It’s a lot like the rose from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Caroll.”

“Oh yeah!” Figment realizes. “I don’t know why I didn't notice it before. It’s sad, though.”

“Poor thing…let’s…let’s press forward.”

As they slowly walk past the pitiful scene of the dead rose, they tread through the rest of the withered wild life that surrounds them and exit to the next room.

In this new room, the “Literature Room,” everywhere is in total darkness. Just as they came in, there is hardly a speck of light to be seen other than a small amount that is shining behind them in the greenhouse room. The only object they see in this particular room is a large letter block that young children would often play with sitting before them with the letter “L.” Figment flies over to pick up the block. At the first touch, another block, this time with the letter “I”, appears up ahead of them. Dreamfinder then follows Figment along as more and more letter blocks keep appearing; each with more or less the same and different letters. The next few letters that come up are a “G,” an “H,” a “T,” an “N,” and another “I”, “N”, and “G.” Together they end up spelling “lightning.” The letters suddenly start peeling off of the blocks like stickers and starts rapidly shooting up towards the ceiling, bursting together into a large lightning bolt made of the same letters spelling it and striking a nerve in the two heroes.

“Yikes!” Figment screams, as he quickly buries himself in Dreamfinder’s arm chattering his teeth.

“There, there. It’s alright, Figment!” said Dreamfinder, attempting to calm his flying purple friend. “It’s alright…hmm.”

“What is it?”

“Doesn’t this place seem familiar, Figment?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean familiar, as in déjà vu kind of familiar?”

“You mean like back in the Nightmare Nation after we teamed up with Fye and Chimera? Right before you became the Dreamfinder?”

“Quite possibly, yes. I wonder what could have interpreted this moment to happen here? And after a hundred years?”

“Beats me.” Figment said. “But it does take us back down Memory Lane, doesn’t it?”

“Yes…a very dark Memory Lane.” Dreamfinder said grimly. He points ahead and says, “There’s the next door up over there. Let’s keep going.”

“Righto! I’d rather be anywhere else than this creepy place.”

“This room or everywhere here?”

“…I may need to think about that a little more.” said Figment, shivering.

The two friends eagerly exit out of the Literature Room and into what seems to be the “Theatrical Arts” room. A pair of masks, one happy and one sad, are hanging together over the arch of the door, but there are some damages and cracks on them making them a lot less appealing to look at. Inside, there are quite a number of boxes and chests sitting around stacked on top of one another, including one that is filled with applauding hands. There isn’t a single box in here that isn’t covered with dust. About three vanity mirrors are lined up on the wall to their left, framed with dead or broken light bulbs. A rack of dusty, moth-eaten, but colorful costumes hang in rows beside the vanities. To their right are the boxes and chests filled with wigs, hats, and masks. The large beaten props serve as old faded décor, to which in their current state looks more like green-hill or stone-like monsters towering over them and waiting to tip over and squish them into pancakes.

“Wowie-wow!” Figment exclaims. In his excitement, he dives into this vast collection of wonderful used-up things like it’s a swimming pool. After rummaging underneath, the dragon pops back out wearing a jester’s jingle-belled cap and a Shakespearian tunic shirt. “Look at all this neat stuff!”

“Intriguing!” said Dreamfinder. “There must be costumes made for every genre there is here in this room.”

“Yeah! And there must be a stage nearby, too. Check this out!” Figment continues digging through the costumes and comes out wearing something different: and eighteenth century Colonial America uniform with a three-pointed military cap. He quotes, “Give me liberty, or give me doubt!”

“Wow.” Dreamfinder chuckles. “That actually sounds pretty deep. Let me try!” Dreamfinder searches through the costumes on the racks by the vanities and pulls out a red king’s robe cuffed with white fluff. In the chest, he finds a white beard and a large crown. Dreamfinder gets dressed in it and starts playing king. He improvises in his British accent saying, “I dub thee Sir Figmen-ton of the British Isles!”

“All hail King Dreamfinder!” Figment cheers.

“Hmm?”

The Dreamfinder suddenly notices something moving in the pile of costumes Figment is sitting in. It is burrowed underneath, but whatever is in there it’s moving fast. The moving lump bumps into Figment’s thigh, making the poor dragon scream and jump out to Dreamfinder’s side. Dreamfinder takes off his king’s robe, he holds it up, slowly sneaks over to the costume pile, and then quickly wraps the robe over and grabs the little lump. The lump starts wriggling to break free as Dreamfinder struggles to hold onto to it. Every piece of clothing in there is being tossed about into one giant carpeted mess. Figment joins in and helps Dreamfinder try to hold down whatever is in there, but it would not stop fighting.

Out of the creases of the one of the costumes, the small lump reveals itself in its escape. A small ball of brightly colored light, as bright as twenty candle lights, flies out and shimmers its aura into its captives’ faces. It’s a spark!

“Mama?” said the spark.

“Ah! Dreamfinder, look! It’s the spark from the Academy!” Figment screams.

“My word! You’re right, Figment!” exclaimed Dreamfinder. “Wait. Figment, you don’t think that…that Rachel might be here? She had the spark with her when she disappeared.”

“Hmm…I don’t know, Dreamfinder. This one has a bit of both blue and green on it. The one Rachel took was more orange and pink. This isn’t the same spark as before.”

“Then that means…Figment, if I’m right, then what Fye has told us before must be true! There must be more of these sparks living here.”

“???” Confused, the spark looks at both Dreamfinder and Figment. It studies their faces carefully. It circles around them inspecting whatever details of their physique they must have. Looking into their eyes, the little spark starts to cringe a little. It moaned, “Aw…not Mama.”

“Mama?” Figment quotes in question. “That’s what the other spark was saying back at the Academy when it was imprisoned.”

“Hmm…I’ve got a feeling that whoever its mother is, she must be somewhere in here. Hey! You know when I sometimes say that necessity is considered the ‘Mother of Invention?’ What if this spark’s mother is the Mother of Invention? That would explain somewhat of where these sparks come from and our imagination must obviously be the key to communicate with them. That makes sense, right?”

“I guess so. Though, I was only able to understand the last half of what you said.”

“Figment, you were able to communicate with the last spark.” said Dreamfinder, remembering what had happened previously. “Can you do it again with this one?”

“I can try.” Figment turns to the little spark and, with a smile on his face, starts talking to it. “Uh…excuse me, little guy.”

“Mama?” said the spark, perking up.

‘Uh…no. I’m not your mama. I’m Figment of the Imagination. I was a spark of inspiration just like you once. That’s why I can understand you.”

“Oh.”

“Are there more of you living around in here?”

In response, the little bluer spark makes a beeline to the next door out of this room. It stops at the door and floats up and down in place. Figment returns his costume to the costume pile and flutters up to Dreamfinder’s side. They both stand there watching the little spark waiting at the door, realizing what this spark must be wanting.

“I think it wants us to follow him.” Figment suggests.

“I believe you’re right, Figment.” said Dreamfinder. “Maybe now we might finally get some answers.”

“And more sparks!”

“Right. Let’s go!”

The Dreamfinder and Figment start following this newly found spark wherever it goes, passing doors of many kinds along the way; many of them relevant to the imagination, while others tend to come from the unexpected. The ones they go by are strangely, yet curious named like “Sweet Dreams,” “Dirty Thoughts,” “The Math-magic Room,” “The Rainbow Room,” among other names. They walk through these empty halls of waste and overrunning nature thinking what all of these rooms used to represent or accomplish for the imagination when it had previously functioned. And for that matter, how long ago did this all close down if even? 

“Hey, what’s that door?”

Suddenly, Figment spots a door quite unlike the others. It is a steel door, covered in vines, bruised and beaten, with only a small window to peek into the darkness inside it. On the rusty surface there is an old sheet of paper taped to the door. A large keyhole is present but there is no handle to pull or push it open.

“Uh, Figment. I don’t think you should open that door.” said Dreamfinder to his discomfort. “The sign says, ‘Must Never Open!’ We should leave that alone.”

“I’m just gonna take a quick peek inside.”

“Figment!”

Figment tries to pull the door open, but it would not budge. He tries pushing it. Same results. Noticing the keyhole on the door, he immediately turns into a key, slips himself inside and unlocks the door. The door opens with a loud creaking sound from the rusted hinges. The inside of that door is so dark that none of the light outside of it is illuminating in there. To watch it as it is both bewildering and strangely peaceful at the same time.

“Hmm…nothing in there, I guess.” said Figment with a shrug. 

“Come on, Figment. We’d better move on or we’ll lose the spark.” said Dreamfinder.

********************************************************************************************************

With no luck of finding whatever is inside that door, other than complete darkness, Figment returns to Dreamfinder to catch up with the little spark, leaving the rusted door open. As they leave, they do not notice that there actually is something inside that door and it’s only just starting to crawl out with it. A pair of fiery green-yellow eyes slowly open along with a large pearly white, but horrifying grin appearing in the dark and forbidding nothingness. Figment should not have opened that door.

********************************************************************************************************

The spark floats about in its merry way, happily searching for the one is supposed to be their “mama.” Dreamfinder, in the back with Figment, cannot help but continue to observe its movements and mannerisms. He remembered Figment’s view of the last spark when it was feeling gloomy and trapped in the capsule Dr. Channing had it in all these years. This one, however, seems to be in a cheerful mood.

“I believe it must depend on the situation?” Dreamfinder thought aloud.

“What’s that?” Figment asks.

“When we were at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, the spark Rachel stole was real sad, but this one seems to be happy to see us…or happy that its mother is here, perhaps. Figment…?”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember what your first reaction was the minute I first remembered you right before I brought you to life with the Mesmonic Converter back in London? Or better yet, when I imagined you for the very first time as a child?”

“Hmm…well, it has been a long time since you first thought of me, so it’s hard for me to remember then. As for you remembering me with the Mesmonic Converter, I remember how alive and reenergized I was feeling…and happy. Every tiny bit of me beginning to become a solid living thing, I was…”

“You were…what?”

“I don’t know. That’s as far as I got. But I remember how happy I was when I first saw you in person instead of just you imagining yourself with me in your dreams. I remember the shock you had on your face, but also hint of happiness in your eyes despite how badly you wanted to impress your last chairman with your project. And everything we did together to get this far: the portals, the sprites, the robots and saving London…I could go on. Looking back, I’ve realized how really lucky I am to actually live a real life with my own creator…my best friend. Like with Pinocchio without the lies and the dark ending. Though, we did get ourselves on the verge of nearly ending ourselves that way. Twice if you don’t count the other moments we had with Rachel on our team. But the point is that as far as my reaction to meeting you goes, I was really ecstatic and very happy. And I have you to thank for that.”

“Uh…wow! My goodness, Figment, I had no idea you had so much to say about all this. Thank you!”

“Hey! You and I are a team and we find a way to solve our problems together. That’s all that counts.”

“Yes, indeed.” Dreamfinder smiles. “You know it’s been a while since we both journeyed through imagination by ourselves. You and me.”

“I know!” said Figment, realizing how the span of time has passed quickly since. “Back then, we were alright with it. And then when Rachel came along the whole world started to look a little brighter. For you, mostly. And now that she’s gone, it’s a little different and weird.”

“I had thought that if I still had that grudge on her for disappearing on us, I would have imagined everything being back to normal…our very weird but fun kind of normal. I guess I was wrong about that, too.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it Dreamfinder! As soon as we finish up whatever we’re doing here, we’re gonna find Rachel and bring her back one way or another.”

“I just hope she would be willing to continue the journey with us still.”

“Mama!” the sparks chirps.

Coming up to a large clearing, equivalent to the likes of a ballroom, the spark swoops off away from Dreamfinder and Figment in a rush. The thing that Dreamfinder and Figment are now seeing has both of their jaws dropped down to their lowest: a mass of more sparks, twenty of them at least, are fluttering around together like a migration of butterflies in the sky or school of fish in the sea. They fill the entire room with light, giggling, chirping, and dancing flickering and quivering about without a care.

“By George!” Dreamfinder exclaims. “The rumors are true! There ARE more sparks of imagination here!”

“Wow oh wow! Look at them all!” Figment exclaims also with a big smile on his face. “All in one spot! Do you think that these sparks are the ones who started that dream power mass up above in the pavilion?”

“It’s possible, seeing as how both of these sparks and the clouded puffs are both made of dream power—Oh, hello!”

Dreamfinder and Figment are being approached by a few of the sparks including the one they have followed. Each one of them are made with different pigments of color. Some of them are changing as they come, while the others stay the same. Like pixie fairies, the sparks start dancing around them and chirping loudly like they’re singing a welcome song for them. A few of those sparks start playing with Dreamfinder’s arms and his top hat, making Dreamfinder giggle and laugh to his heart’s content. Two more sparks quickly circle around Figment like two stars in space beginning to merge and making him dizzy and making Dreamfinder laugh all the harder.

“This is incredible, Figment!” Dreamfinder laughs, noticing one of sparks hiding in his hat as shelter. “I have so many questions to ask, but I can’t think of which one to ask first.”

“I wonder which one of them is the mother?” Figment asks.

“Can you ask them?”

“Sure! I can give it a try.” Figment turns to the sparks of imagination and starts talking. “Excuse me, everyone! Can you tell me and my friend here who and where your Mama is?”

“Mama! Mama! Mama!” the sparks cheered.

The school of sparks all starts grabbing onto both Dreamfinder and Figment by their jacket, pants, and tail, pushing and pulling them away to their desired answers to another room. This room is very different compared to a majority of the room in this wondrous place. It looks like an office apartment. A small one with only a chair, a bed, a large bookshelf and a desk filled with scattered papers and written books on top.

On the other end of the room, there is a painting of three people. The painting is dirtied and a bit torn, but the picture is still visible and intact. On one side there is a figure of a purple dragon that looks exactly like Figment. The second person looks a bit like Dreamfinder, too, but has some differences. The one in the painting is tall, but stout and has a much fuller beard of ginger red. Still, the smile on his face can be seldom ignored. Then right below him to the left is a little girl of long brown hair dressed in a scarlet red headband, red shoes, and a little sleeveless yellow dress with tiny little pink and orange flowers.

“The sparks mother is this little girl?” Figment reveals.

“That’s interesting!” said Dreamfinder to his astonishment. “I was expecting more a larger sized spark taking care of these smaller ones.”

“Look! There’s me in the picture!”

“You’re right, but how can that be? It can’t possibly be another version of you, could it?”

“I dunno. Though it would be fun to have another me to play with. I wonder who those other two people are.”

“Hmm…that girl.” Dreamfinder starts observing, looking closer and squinting his eyes. “She looks…familiar.”

“You know, judging by his clothing, that taller guy with the big beard looks a great deal like you, too! Although I can’t really picture you going around with that much weight on your belly.”

“Figment…this girl. She looks a lot like…like—”

“Me.”

A voice speaks out unexpectedly in a dreary tone behind Dreamfinder and Figment. They quickly turn around and notices a shadow standing them staring at them with its brown dull-expressing eyes. It was a woman’s voice. Her breathes deeply through her nose and slowly steps out of the shadows, revealing her true identity, much to Dreamfinder and Figment’s shock.

The girl has long brown hair like the little girl in the painting, but longer and tied together by three green hair bands. She is dressed in her sleeveless mahogany red jacket, beige pants, black shoes and sand colored long sleeve shirt. Her standing position is somewhat sloppy due to the apparent depressed tone in her voice. Still, she manages to step up and face what she must.

“She looks a lot like me.” said the girl in gloom.

“RACHEL!”


	38. Rachel's POV

As Rachel, with Yuna hiding and the little spark nestled safe in her arms, runs faster and faster away from the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus with her friends catching up to her. Her eyes are filled with tears, forged solely from the essence of her own fear. Her legs and muscles are ready to give out from her running and crashing through the glass windows of one of the two pyramids. And her mind is pounding and hurting tremendously with each stomp she takes on the ground. She cannot run for much longer.

She hears the little spark below crying for her, cheering her on to keep going. The one and only purpose Rachel has right now is to get someplace secluded and safe where she could set the little spark free in peace without any outside and alarming interference. That is her deepest wish. In hopes to pursue and fulfill her ambitions, the blue necklace begins to glow again around Rachel’s neck ready to grant whatever she desires. And for once, this wish is about to be granted with a price. As Rachel turns her head behind her, seeing her friends running just inches away from grabbing her, she grips the little spark tightly in one arm and grabs hold of the glowing gem in another and makes her wish.

“I WISH TO GO TO THE SAFEST PLACE THE LITTLE SPARK AND I CAN BE!”

Loud and proud the gem hears Rachel’s cry and arouses its full brilliance of light, almost as bright as the sun, engulfing the girl and the spark. By the time the Dreamfinder has reached out to grab the back of Rachel’s shirt, his fingertips could not even touch the swift transparency that is overtaking his love’s body. The tingling sensation of every fiber and particle of Rachel’s being turned into tiny bits of light and then into nothing is beginning to sting her like tiny touches from the tips of needles from head to toe, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that she got away safely with Yuna and the little spark. Her only regret is leaving both Dreamfinder and Figment behind without at least giving them a hint of where she was going. That is, if she knew where she is going.

With Rachel gone, all that was left for Dreamfinder to do was cry out and scream for Rachel to come back only to get nothing back at all, while Figment is there to comfort his sad creative friend.

********************************************************************************************************

Traveling with Yuna and the little spark, the blue light brings what’s left of Rachel’s particles into a dark foreboding void. There is nothing around her; nothing can be seen or touched. The light of day that Rachel had just previously felt and seen with her friends is gone. There is not a single sight of light, sound, or physical object of any kind to be seen anywhere. Still, the particles that once took the solidified form of Rachel are flying throughout the void like a rocket. There is no sense of fear or courage building inside of Rachel. The only thing she feels is the faint tingly sense intensifying in each of the million particles that have been separated. With every wave and curve that particles take, they start shooting towards a certain direction; one where not even the particles of Rachel themselves were sure, if even, of knowing where they’re going.

Despite the winds that are blowing over, under or through the particles as they soar through the darkness, there is still total silence. If you had your window down while driving a car or if you were flying a kite or an airplane, you would hear the harsh whooshing of soft winds or wind turbulence rushing by. In this case, Rachel can hear nothing. Not without her fully solidified ears anyway. This is where things start to get pretty horrifying. Without sound, sight, smell, touch, or even a thought to help Rachel find her way in this dark void, she can be lost in it forever! Could this really be the safe place she had desired for her and the little spark? If it is then she had just wasted a wish for herself, helplessly alone with no one to come and find her. Even Dreamfinder or Figment would be the less likely people to come and rescue her if she needed it. Or even worse: Nebulus could be around at the right place at the right time, waiting to finally capture her in his grasp. But for what reason exactly?

In her fear of Nebulus creeping around in the void, she suddenly becomes aware of her own heart beating wildly in her rib cage. Funny. When Rachel made her wish, she hardly noticed her heart stopping or beating briskly, or any of her body parts stopping of slowing down for that matter. The particles are beginning to start solidifying her limbs into her original self again. The tingly sense Rachel is having is growing stronger. She can feel her arms and legs form and move. Her fingers begin to wiggle and stretch again. Her face is being reconstructed back to normal with her eyelids heavily closed. She can finally feel the cool breeze of the dark void’s wind blowing at her newly reformed corporeal body. She can finally move again. She can touch things again. She can hear things again as the wind blowing at her whistles into her ears and through her head in large quantities. 

“Mama! Mama!”

“Rachel! Wake up, Rachel!”

The sudden cries of Yuna and the little spark ring like bells in Rachel’s ears. She must be getting close to returning to her consciousness. Her eyelids fight off the weight it was having like it was large sty with its puss sealing the lids shut that required a lot of energy to lift even a centimeter. She sees the light brightening up into a dark orange-brown atmosphere. She feels a patting and bump pressuring the nerves on her head, cheeks and shoulders. Then Rachel can hear the soft tone of Yuna’s voice beckoning her to open her eyes like a loving mother tenderly would sound when she softly wakes up child to greet the dawn. Her eyes slowly open to the blurry sight of a bright light in a ball of aura flickering right before her face. As her vision clears, she sees the little spark bouncing back and forth from side to side with excitement.

“Mama! My Mama Mama!” the little spark cheers.

“Are you alright, Rachel?” Yuna asks in her human form, as she kneels to Rachel’s weak lying body.

“I…I think so.” Rachel rubs her forehead, moaning. “Oooh…now I know how Meg Murray felt in ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ traveling from the third to fifth dimension in a flash. Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine. That was quite a trip.”

“I wouldn’t know that. Up until the end, I hardly felt a thing except being dissolved into a million tiny dots of light.”

“Mama! Mama!” the little spark, happy to see Rachel well, floats up and cuddles up in her arms and all over her face feeling the tenderness of Rachel’s fair skin.

“Well, the good news is that you’re finally safe, little guy…but…where exactly is here?”

“It is rather dark.” said Yuna. “Though not as much as it was before. Let me clear it out real quick.”

With a couple of claps and a swish of her hands swinging towards the ceiling, the remnants of her aura illuminates into long streaks of glittering gold and blue light, shooting over the ground surface. As they reach towards the nearest wall, they start to rise high to the center top of the ceiling. It is in incredible length from top to bottom. Everything the lights touch is brightening up a majority of the atmosphere the girls and the spark are in. And much to Rachel’s surprise, this room has struck an immense amount of familiarity.

“No…” Rachel gasps in horror in her whispers.

As the light brighten up more, they find themselves sitting in the middle of a broken glass floor in a large foyer where underneath this glass is a set of rusted, bent up and mismatched gears piling on top of one along with some stone debris and a large branch sticking out from below. There are many doors around them: a broken funnel-like cone with the words “Sound Room,” a large golden-bronze pot with faded rainbow colors on the top called the “Art Department,” a large crippled flower which already explains itself of what kind of room it is, a large worn green book with golden letters spelling “Library,” and a dully grayed tunnel of broken neon lights with missing letters in the words spelling “the Rainbow Tunnel.” Everything else around them is either crumbled and collapsed or completely covered in wild vines and nature. The half-spiraled stairs that lead up to the second floor has been seriously damaged. Moss and willow vines are covering much of the walls and the rails on the second floor. Sections of the walls are cracked with snowflake designs allowing tiny insects and other creepy crawling creatures access to the ins and outs of the room. Cobwebs by the hundreds fill almost every corner of the foyer, while the rest of the floors are littered with chucks of stone and defective props. And yet underneath this large mess is a place that Rachel knows all too well and dreads to remember, enough for her eyes to start swelling with tears.

“Eli Finder’s lab!” Rachel gasps.

“So…this is where it all began.” said Yuna in a grave tone.

“It looks even worse than I ever imagined it to be. Everything is…completely destroyed!”

“Mama…” the spark sighs.

“Did the safest place have to be here?” Rachel moans.

“If you had asked me,” said Yuna, “I would have taken you to a much wondrous place to be free and safe.”

“That’s nice, Yuna. I probably should have. Anywhere else is better than here.”

“Mama? Mama Mama!” the little spark chirps.

“I can’t believe I let this happen!”

“Rachel, it wasn’t your fault.” said Yuna.

“How would you know?!” Rachel yells. “You weren’t even here when Uncle Eli was taken from me!”

“But I’ve still seen it, Rachel—”

“HOW?! How the hell could you have possibly seen what I’ve gone through; what the little sparks like this one has gone through? Tell me!”

“I…I can’t tell you. Not yet. Trust me, Rachel. For now, it’s best that I don’t say a word about it until the next best time possible.”

“Well that’s just super. I’m in the ruins of what is left of that tiny crumb of childhood I got to taste with no family who wouldn’t have supported me to begin with anyway and I’m away from Dreamfinder and Figment all over again! In fact…I…I…I could’ve sworn I heard Dreamfinder crying. I even saw him like that…at the academy…and…”

“Don’t lose hope, Rachel.” Yuna says softly, as she gently lifts Rachel’s chin. “If I know Dreamfinder, he will come for you.”

“Not after what I did, he won’t.”

“You had your reasons.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I real feel that Dreamfinder must have been in…never mind. It doesn’t matter anymore. I might as well just live the rest as my life as a hermit in this god forsaken realm of an underground building…or wherever it’s intended to be.”

“Mama…” the little spark squealed to its discontent, it rubs itself against Rachel’s cheek and purrs like a kitten to cheer up. Then all of a sudden, the spark starts to jitter itself. It perks up over the girl’s height tossing its small head around. Something has got its attention.

“What’s wrong, little guy?” Rachel asks. “Hey wait!”

The spark shoots off at a terrific speed away from Rachel and Yuna and into the Rainbow Tunnel. As Yuna morphs back into her sprite form, she follows Rachel as she runs ahead after the little spark. The spark is fast, but Rachel is faster. It exits the tunnel on the other side where they encounter a room filled with strangely warped mirrors, all of them in different shapes and sizes. The room is abnormally tall like the room has been stretched into taffy; quite similar to the stretching portraits in the Haunted Mansion attractions. There is only one other door on the other side of the room, but the spark instantly remained floating in place at the very center. Both Rachel and Yuna finally catch up to this little spark all alone. Their breaths are in exhausted puffs and the blood running throughout Rachel’s body is only just beginning to pump since she transported here through that void of darkness. As soon as Rachel lifts her head she finds the spark chirping and dancing in a bouncing circle as if it looks happy.

“Wow, you’re fast!” said Rachel, gasping for air. “Listen, little guy, if you want to play you have to stay close to me and Auntie Yuna here.”

“Um…Rachel,” Yuna spoke as she transforms into her human form again. “I don’t think this is a game. Look!”

Yuna points out towards one of the mirrors. Just as Rachel turns her head towards that particular one, she sees the one—no, two sparks of imagination appear. Could this be a parallel image of the spark in the mirror? Possibly. There’s only one difference, however: this second spark is colored in blue!

This blue spark pops out from behind the mirror and playfully dances around with the other spark. Giggles are heard from both sparks as they play like innocent little children playing together on a kindergarten playground at recess. But once the blue sparks starts to look at Rachel on the sideline, it stops its playful mood with the other spark. The blue spark slowly floats right in front of Rachel. It studies her closely, inspecting whatever it is about her that’s caught its awareness, and just like the first little spark it recognizes Rachel as the same individual it once saw before.

“My Mama!” the blue spark exclaims.

“My Mama! My Mama!” both of the sparks cheer together as they cheerily dance around the girl with glee.

Rachel cannot help but giggle along with them. The two little sparks prance all around the girl like pixie fairies, chanting the same mantra over and over again and making Rachel laugh heartedly. But that is only the beginning to this pleasurable moment. Coming out from behind more of these wacky mirrors are more and more sparks in a whole variety of colors, enough colors to fill a rainbow! To Rachel and Yuna’s surprise the small army of sparks all watch the other two little sparks frolicking around Rachel and start to sing the same song of praise, recognizing Rachel as their apparent mother.

“My Mama! My Mama! My Mama! My Mama!” said all of the sparks simultaneously. 

“Oh, how beautiful they all are!” Yuna exclaims happily.

“You’re…you’re all here!” Rachel gasps. She then sobs, “All these years…I thought he took you…I thought you were all gone!”

“Mama!” the sparks cheered. “My Mama! My Mama!”

All of the sparks gather around Rachel, cooing softly to their affection. A couple of them, one including the first spark Rachel had just rescued, are lying in her arms being held lovingly like an infant at birth. Rachel fondly cradles them close to her heart, feeling the glowing warmth building up inside by the sparks.

“I thought I’d never feel this feeling ever again.” Rachel sighs happily. “You’re all so warm…I missed you all so much.”

“Aww…what dear things!” said Yuna with great delight.

“These sparks…these beautiful little sparks…their like infants waiting for me to love and take care of them. I remember they’d play with me when Uncle Eli was busy or when I was all alone by myself. To be called a mother by them…I’ve forgotten how badly I always wanted to be a real mother…have my own kids to love.”

“Mama…Mama…Mama!” the sparks cooed.

“Mama play!” shouted one of the sparks. The rest of the sparks become excited out of that outburst. Many of the sparks start grabbing onto Rachel’s arms pulling her to them as well as pushing against Rachel’s back with encouragement. “Come play, Mama!”

“Um…okay!” Rachel blushes. “What would you all like to play?”

The sparks suddenly split up into different directions. They each take their own route through whatever open doors there were left, disappearing from sight. Both Rachel and Yuna are left alone in the center of this empty foyer, standing there with a slight surprise caught up in their nerves.

“I guess we’re playing hide-and-seek then.” said Yuna with a warm smile.

“Alrighty then!” Rachel exclaims. “Ready or not, here we come!”

So Rachel starts sprinting off towards the broken door to the Garden of Imagination Room with Yuna following behind her making sure she does not rip her dress in the process. Rachel pulls the door to the side and enters the darkness within it. Whatever light there was in this room it shone snippets of dead nature withering, fading away and dying. The long tall grass that once grew plentiful there has turned gray over the years. The flowers there are heavily drooping. They’re drooping so low the center of the flowers touch the ground. All the bushes in there are nothing more than prickly tumbleweeds. The only advantage to that is that they are lousy hiding spots for all the little sparks to hide in, making it easier for Rachel to seek them.

“Hmm…now where or where could my little sparkly sparks have gone?” Rachel playfully asks aloud. The little sparks giggle from behind their obvious hiding spots. Rachel carefully tiptoes by each one of them pretending to not notice them. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

“Oh my…” Yuna sighs. “this poor garden.”

“There you are!” Rachel exclaims, as she plucks out one of the sparks giggling from behind a dead bush. “I found you!”

“Mama! Mama!” cheered the little spark. “My Mama!”

“Thought you could hide from Mommy, did you?”

“MAMAAA-!” A couple of the sparks come buzzing right out of the dead grass in a frenzy. They tremble in front of Rachel and Yuna, scared out of their wits. They tug onto Rachel’s sleeves as they try to pull her towards them.

“What is it?” Rachel asks. “What’s wrong?”

“They seem pretty scared, Rachel.” said Yuna.

“Mama! Mama!” the sparks swiftly flies off again away from Rachel and Yuna and back into the grass. One of the sparks starts floating and bouncing over the top surface of the dead grass. Its aura shines brilliantly with its light spiking out like a porcupine. 

Rachel and Yuna, who are starting to feel the worst of what is happening, they dash off to follow the frenzy little spark. The dirt and dead leaves are being dragged and flown off from their running and kicking feet. The musty air of the mold from the dead wood and bushes blow right in front and past their faces and somewhere into their noses, but they disregard the foul smell and continue forth to the spark.

Coming up to the dead grass where the spark is, they are surprised to see what was in it. A giant rose as red and withered as a red leaf in autumn that’s fallen from a tree is leaning over, moaning; its head heavily weighing itself down with only a dangerously thin and crisp stem to support itself. But that is not all. This particular rose has a face! Its eyes are big and half closed in is condition, the rosy red lips match its color, and its petals are drooping like drops of mucky water. The soil below it is dry and dusty. There is very little light; not enough to singe the flower into a crisp. As the sounds of the little sparks sorrowfully peeping and of Rachel and Yuna’s footsteps grow louder, the rose slowly lifts its head to see what is here. Its eyes wander around where the little sparks are floating about, then up to Rachel and Yuna’s direction. The rose stares up at Rachel and smiles softly, raising its weak petals up.

“You-u-u’ve come back…” the rose moans.

“M-M-Ms. Rose!” Rachel gasps.

“H-o-o-o-w you’ve gro-o-o-wn…how you’ve blossomed. Yo-o-o-o-o-u are no longer the little sprout you were before.”

“What happened?”

“Much…much has happened since you’ve last been here. The magic of imagination has faded…when Master Eli was taken by the enemy.”

“Nebulus.” Rachel guesses.

“Yes-s-s-s-s-s…” Ms. Rose hisses. She moans, “He. With the help of the Dr. Channing, has taken Eli for his boundless fancies…to control…all things.”

“I knew Dr. Channing was still in cahoots with Nebulus! I almost got choked to death by him today.”

“To kill such a lovely flower as you are is a breach of life…” the rose says, as she lifts one of her petals to Rachel’s chin. “Yo-o-o-o-o-u have been fortunate to have escaped.”

“I…I couldn’t save him.” Rachel sighs in defeat. “I didn’t know what to do. I was scared to stand up to…I couldn’t use my imagination to save Uncle Eli.”

“It was not your doing, child.”

“Yes, it was.” Rachel shudders. “It was all my fault. All of it.”

“Shhhhhh… My little flower, it was never your fault to begin with. Eli…had known long beforehand that…that Nebulus would be coming. But he…he had to keep you…away…that very last day to save you…because he knows…how very special…you really are. Oh…how I have waited to tell you this myself.”

“You’ve waited for me to come back all these years? This whole time?”

“Fifteen years…yes. Fifteen years have slowly passed by…since you had fled while Master Eli was taken away. Fifteen years I have stood here, living with whatever drops of water was left…whatever sunlight could break through from the heavens to this darkened abandoned place…withering away into the dust…waiting. But now, you have come back after all these years…you’ve come to claim your destiny.”

“No, Ms. Rose, it’s nothing like that all. I didn’t mean—”

“Rachel,” Ms. Rose interrupts, “Nebulus will return…somewhere…someday…sometime soon. It will not be much longer…for Nebulus to figure out that Master Eli is not the true identity he has been looking for. As I heard from the gentle urgent voice of the warm Floridian winds, the true Dreamfinder has returned to our world creating dream worlds and inspiring others. So long as he is here…Nebulus will stop at nothing until he captures him and his Figment for his dark purpose. You must not let that happen!”

“Ms. Rose…I can’t!” Rachel sobs. “I—”

“Yes you can, Rachel. I know you can. You are a very special child of the Earth, one whom Master Eli had recognized…such greatness waiting ahead just for you. And now it is time…for you to see it for yourself.”

“But I—”

“You must save Master Eli…” the rose gasps, as her dry leaf petals grip onto Rachel’s hand and says, “…save our world…save imagination! Promise me…that you will…and that you will never ever give up…or lose sight of who you are…and what…you are truly capable of. Promise me.”

“I…I…I promise.” Rachel sighs once again in defeat.

“…Take…this-s-s-s…” the rose weakly lean over to a nearby tumbleweed bush and removes it to the side. Under a small pile of dead leaves, she struggles to pull out a small metallic blue mirror with golden edges and dressings. The glass on the mirror is dirtied around the edges, but other than that it seems to be in pretty good condition.

“Do you…remember this, Rachel?” Ms. Rose asks.

“I do.” said Rachel. “It was a gift from Uncle Eli. He said that it’s a magic mirror and if I ever needed him or wanted to see anything that I wanted to see, I ask for it in the mirror and it would appear. I even remember the magic words he told me to remember. I thought I lost it the day Nebulus came. How did you—”

“I’ve kept it safe for you. I figured you could…use this on your journey. Keep it safe. Don’t let anyone have it.”

“I won’t.”

At that, Ms. Rose lets go of Rachel’s hand. She breathes her last breath with a smile and closes he eyes with one last look of the lovely flower of a human she had once and always known. Her head, now wrinkled and heavy in her death, falls gently to the ground nestling to the dust of the remains she had shed off for so long. Her stem is shriveled to the maximum, completely dry with no water or any sugars left for her to survive.

As she watches the rose die right before her, the tears in Rachel’s eyes begin to pour heavily drenching and soaking her face. Some of those tears have blurred her vision, some have fallen off of her cheeks, while the very few that have gone have entered her mouth and left the bittersweet taste of salt on the tip of her tongue. The sparks around her begin to cry, too. Each one of them have formed into a more spiky shape as little droplets of their aura erupt from their little bodies like a tiny volcano. A spark or two lowers down to Rachel’s height and gently nudge themselves against her cheeks and shoulders. Yuna, who has watched the whole thing happen with tears forming in this sad event, crouches down at Rachel’s side and lift her back to her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Rachel.” said Yuna in a solemn tone.

“Watch carefully…” Rachel whispers under her breath, “listen closely…see what you can see. Through the power of words and the magic in your mind, I can be whatever I want to be.”

“Rachel?”

“The magic words. Those are the magic words Uncle Eli taught me a long time ago. To keep remembering these words makes me feel close to him…but also feel great heartbreak. …I can’t run anymore. I wonder…if…” Rachel holds the mirror to her face and speaks to the glass it holds. “Show me the Dreamfinder!”

The glass in the mirror starts to show visions of puffy clouds at Rachel’s command. They swirl rapidly in a quick pace of pattern. Swirling and twirling in a circular pattern it’s enough to cause hypnotism onto a defenseless soul staring at it too long. The least it’s doing is make a couple of the sparks feel dizzy. Suddenly, the mirror starts showing an image. It’s mostly blue with hints of black, red and violet pink. Two figures are appearing within the blurry blob, one with black hair and one with red hair and a beard. The Dreamfinder and Jess are now present in the mirror as if they are having a conversation together. Looks more like an argument as far as Rachel is concerned. The way Dreamfinder looks with his face scrunched up and angry and his eyes filled with a fiery hate.

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“Perhaps if you can just talk to her and get to know her more once you find her—” Jess says, but is interrupted by Dreamfinder’s rant.

“I’m done with getting to know her, Jess!” Dreamfinder shouts, as he slams on the table real hard. “I don’t want to have anymore to do with her!”

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The shrill of the Dreamfinder’s voice has shocked through Rachel’s ears. Her eyes widen wide and her heart begins to break in a terrifying rate of agony. More tears flow down from her eyes. Her chin and bottom lip are quivering and her hands and arms are shaking. Rachel’s head hangs troublesomely low. Her eyes now close halfway in an emotional defeat. 

“Oh dear.” said Yuna.

“Bah! What would be the point in asking for their help anyway?” Rachel groans.

“Rachel—”

“We’ll be fine without them. Besides, the further we stay away from them, the less danger they’ll both be in.”

“Mama! Mama!” called a couple of the sparks.

“You cannot dodge them both forever.” Yuna warns.

“Maybe not forever,” said Rachel, “but perhaps long enough for me to deal with Nebulus personally before either Dreamfinder or Figment find out what’s happening.”

“You are not ready to face him yet, Rachel. 

“You don’t think I am?”

“No. If anything, you’re definitely ready for some healing and rest. You haven’t exactly healed up from bursting through that window at the academy. See? You still have a few cuts behind your neck.”

“Oh…I haven’t even noticed.”

“Mama! Oh Mama! Mama!” the sparks cried. They all gather together around Rachel at the back of her neck and coddle her neck trying to help soothe the cuts. “Mama…Mama!”

“There, there, you guys.” Rachel coos softly, as she pets the little sparks softly. “It’s okay. Mama’s fine. I am a little tired from running and stressing today, so what’s say we all take a nap somewhere.” In an instant, the sparks chirp with delight. Whatever Rachel wants to do, they do it happily. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ ”

Followed by Yuna, the sparks take Rachel out of the garden room someplace cozier. Down the hall to the right hand side to a small staircase they go up, but it is only a couple of steps, at least ten. With ever step they take it urges Rachel the need to yawn. It had been a very rough day. To travel to a place that has haunted her memory for so long, escaping from a school that has been cherished by both Dreamfinder and Figment to save one little spark from evil hands, and to traverse through an unexplained vast of darkness. For all of that to happen within a day is enough to wear a person out.

They come to a dark brown room that has faded and deteriorated overtime. Inside the room, the sparks open the door revealing a small bed, a small vanity, a big enough dresser, a large rocking chair, a lamp and a chest of old toys. The walls were once pink, but over the years the color has faded and been reduced to a sandy tone like on a beach in Hawaii. The sparks float ahead and lift up the sheets for Rachel to cover herself in. The bed is obviously too small for Rachel to fit in, so she turns over to the old rocking chair. Making sure the chair won’t break, the girl sits down gently with one little spark, the one whom she rescued at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus, cradled in her arms. The instant Rachel makes herself comfortable with the sparks, she falls asleep, while Yuna and some of the other sparks stayed awake and guarded them for the time being.

Minutes go by, and then hours go by. For however long they slept it seemed like they are about to sleep for a millennia. In her sleep, Rachel can hear the soft murmuring of her little sparks sleeping with her. But when one spark or another would start crying for whatever reason while she slept, Rachel would take them both and rock them softly to calm them down and fall asleep again. Sometimes throughout the night, Rachel would start humming such sweet soft lullabies to the sparks, much to Yuna’s delight since it was she who had encouraged Rachel to sing for her in a dream a while back. As soon as everyone was comfortable enough in that room to not notice anything else happening, Yuna turns off the light in the lamp and goes to the sleep on the small bed in her sprite form.

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The next morning, only a small beam of light had shown throughout this mysterious place illuminating and bouncing the light to any other space it could touch. A little bit of that was able to reach inside the room Rachel, Yuna and the sparks were sleeping in. The sparks were all sleeping soundly. Some of them were breathing quietly while some others were softly snoring. Thankfully, it had not affected Rachel or Yuna’s slumber. Out of her own will, Rachel eyes open ever so slightly slowly. She slowly tilts her head back and forth, noticing all of the sparks sleeping right beside her. It made her happy very much. It was enough to make her smile. Excluding the times she had with Dreamfinder and Figment, this is the first time Rachel has ever smiled for any reason. Not since the day Nebulus had kidnapped her Uncle Eli. She calmly stretches her arms and makes a big yawn. As Rachel rubs her eyes, she leaves the sparks on the rocking chair and walks over to the door.

Suddenly, she hears a feint but earsplitting scream coming from outside; an intruder! Rachel rushes out of the room without waking everyone else and heads back to the foyer, hiding behind a corner at the Rainbow Tunnel’s entrance. The screams were coming from a very large door across the room. She recognized that door all right; she remembered that this was the door she came through to this room a long time ago. Finally, the screaming had stopped. But why? Could whoever is behind that door have fallen to their death on the hard floor that had awaited them? What else could it be?

The door begins to open slowly. And who should be coming out through that door…Dreamfinder and Figment! Rachel is shocked. How did they find this place? She then remembers how their friend Fye had explained where the phenomenon in that security footage had happened. But even then, there was no way they could have found this place so quick let alone find the entrance! As Rachel stays completely hidden, she watches her former friends enter bedazzled by the sight of this incredible worn down mansion. On a lighter note, she is happy that the both of them are alright. However, it does not satisfy her enough to know that they are actually here of all places.

She follows Dreamfinder and Figment everywhere they went including the “Flower Room” where they had found the dead corpse of her old friend, Ms. Rose. Then upon arriving in the “Literature Room,” she too becomes scared to her wits at the sight of the spelled-out lightning bolt striking in the room. Thirdly, in the “Theatrical Arts” room she makes a lightly humorous smile as she watches her friends play dress-up. But then her cover-up is becoming less and less stealthy at the moment where one of the sparks of imagination had already woken up and appeared before Figment and the Dreamfinder. Rachel follows the Dreamfinder and Figment once more as they follow the spark to wherever they were going, overhearing their conversations and theories about what kind of mannerisms the sparks must have. All of sudden, Rachel bumps into a boulder that is blocking her way from Dreamfinder and Figment’s reach. She had to go another way to catch up to them unnoticed; while her friends were passing by the rusted steel door they were not supposed to touch.

When Rachel finally finds them in the Ballroom, she sees that all of the other little sparks have already woken up from their sleep in the bedroom they were in. They were enjoying the Dreamfinder and Figment’s company as they fly around their waists and other parts of their bodies, playing with them. She watches the sparks showing them the portrait of the little girl, her Uncle Eli, and another Figment on the wall all tattered and shredded from Nebulus’ previous invasion. A crack is forming in Rachel’s heart as she sees the poster. And it is hurting her a lot more to see the Dreamfinder and Figment look at it. Rachel takes a couple of steps back in fear, but in doing so she suddenly stops. She sees how intrigued her friends are in this great discovery. She had hoped that she could hold out what has happened a long time ago out until she would settle this all out herself. Apparently, that is not going to happen. The girl then feels a sudden calming pat on her shoulder. She looks over to her left and finds Yuna, awake as ever from her sleep in her human form, standing next to her with sad sympathy.

“It’s time to tell them the truth, Rachel.” said Yuna in quiet truthful tone.

She is right. She is always right. It’s time for Rachel to finally face up to her friends, the ones who have been so kind to her despite had badly she had treated them back, and clear the air. As soon as Yuna morphs back into her sprite form and hides back into Rachel’s necklace, Rachel slowly walks out of the shadows at last and walks to the Dreamfinder, depressed. There is no turning back this time, like there has every been from the start of her adventures with them to begin with. It’s time to tell the truth.

“Figment…this girl.” Dreamfinder observes aloud. “She looks a lot like…like—”

“Me.” said Rachel to her discouragement. “She looks a lot like me.”

“RACHEL! Dreamfinder shouts.

“Rachel!” Figment exclaims. “You’re okay!” In his excitement, the little purple dragon speedily races over to Rachel with open arms and gives Rachel a big hug. “We missed you so much!”

“I see you guys are having a lot more fun in here than I have been.” said Rachel with a smirk, returning the hug to Figment.

“Rachel, what are you doing here?” said Dreamfinder. “We thought you were gone.”

“I made a wish through my necklace to bring me and the spark I saved to the safest place we could be and here we are…of all places.”

“Oh Rachel!” Dreamfinder grabs Rachel into his arms and hugs her very tightly. “My dear Rachel, don’t you ever do this to me and Figment ever again! Do you realize how worried you’ve made us?”

“I can imagine.” Upon looking at the picture on the wall, Rachel lets go of Dreamfinder, walks over to it and sighs, “I…I had hoped you two would never have found this place. Ever. This place is…is…”

“Rachel, what is going on?” Figment asks. “You haven’t been yourself over the past couple of days and I can tell that this place, that spark and this portrait has a lot to do with it.”

“I can’t!” Rachel exclaims. “I can’t tell you anything! I…I promised I wouldn’t—just please!”

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder shouts in his frustration. “For all of our sakes, you have to tell us! We promise that we won’t say a thing of it to anybody! Please, Rachel. I hate seeing you this way.”

“……”

“Rachel… please.”

“…You really want to know?” Rachel asks, receiving a pair of nodding heads back. In her defeat, she sighs, “Fine. I’ll…I’ll tell you everything, but you should know that this is going to hurt me a lot more telling you this than it’s going to be for you.”

“We’ll take our chances.” Figment assures.

“Please, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder in a calm voice. “Start at the very beginning. We’re listening.”

“You’d better find something to sit on first because I have a lot to say.” warned Rachel. “It all happened like this…”


	39. Chapter 39

Note: The following chapter will be narrated as a first-person point of view by the character Rachel. Everything in this text will be coming straight from her mouth for this chapter alone. Any material that is recognized by outside readers in this chapter of the story are entirely and completely coincidental, credited from its source. 

— WishExpedition23

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It happened fifteen years ago last month, the day my childhood ended. By the time of day that you two first met me it had already been fifteen years and ten days over since what I’m about to tell you happened. I was just a little girl that time, a very shy little girl. I was almost seven-years-old. In those days, as I have kept telling you throughout this adventure, my father had been treating me and my siblings very terribly. Well, mostly me because I never came out as the son he had wanted and that me being born had resulted in my mother being considered that it was unsafe for her to get pregnant again. So if you ever hear my dad say, “I never got to have a son of my own. We weren’t able to make that happen,” what he really means to say is “[b]lame Rachel! It’s her fault my wife can’t provide me any sons.” Technically, the way he really means to say it is a lot more vulgar to be verbally expressed, but I’ll spare you those details. I hardly believe Figment’s childlike sense would not be tainted if I told you how he says it.

Everything my father gave to my sisters and adopted brother, I was given less. I did everything I could do to get him to love and appreciate me as I am, but no matter what I did, it was never enough. There were times when he tried to feed me less food than my mom and my siblings so that there wouldn’t be another mouth to feed in the family. That’s the kind of man he is.

My mother, however, even though she has always expected a lot out of me as both a child and an adult, she was a lot more sympathetic for me. In fact, it was actually her that’s caused the genesis of what was to come, which isn't to say I blame her for the whole thing. My mom is a court reporter. You probably don’t know what that is, Figment, but I think maybe you do, Dreamfinder. Basically, a court reporter is someone who types down everything everyone in a court is saying during a trial. Mostly in some kind of abbreviations because they rely more on what the syllables sound like to match a word rather than relying on what specific word it is they say. Kind of like a dictator, if that’s the right word. Anyway, every once in a while a court reporter has to attend a convention to update the processes of their career; which latest machines are more efficient, what the grammar and the format should currently be, and there are even some tests to re-certify your status as a court reporter or how experienced you are in that field. My mom today, one of the best! At that time, though, the convention she was supposed to go to was meant to take place right here in Florida. It was she who decided to make this a family trip to Walt Disney World. My siblings and I were excited to hear the news. My dad, however, he cared less about it really. Nevertheless, somewhere at the beginning of August, we packed up what we could bring and we flew all the way here in a five-hour flight for a two-week family vacation. 

When we got here, we decided to come to the Magic Kingdom first. That’s just up north from here. I was so excited. Everything that had happened in that park was like a dream come true. To meet all of the princesses Disney had that time, and there are a lot more today than that, I truly felt I was one of them…except my dad kept ruining everything for me. “Mickey Mouse isn’t real! That’s just a guy in a costume!” or “Fake! It’s all done with mirrors!” or “Sit down and shut up! You’re making us look like fools!” And more infamously, he says, “Nobody really cares about you here! You’re not worth anything at all to the world!” I tried to disregard every one of those ranting comments throughout the night, but that last one always hits me deep. And he’s made it much worse on the way back to the hotel by saying, “See? We’re going back to the hotel now because of you. This is what happens when you cause trouble and make a fool of yourself.” And right there in front of everyone in the monorail when we were leaving the park, where there was no escape route for me to run to, he says that he was ashamed that he’s my father. I cried quietly in my sleep for hours that night.

The next morning, we decided to come here to Epcot, the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, as it was always called since the beginning. I never knew it was an acronym then, but that’s beside the point. Everything they had here at that time, I was really intrigued. Everything around me here was so science-y, I've never heard or realized such things could happen in everyday life. Heh, I remember…I remember when we met up with my grandpa, my dad’s dad, who is much much nicer than my dad is, we went straight to a simulation ride called “Body Wars,” where the point of the ride was to save a shrunken scientist from being carried away by a bloodstream inside the body while we were helping the patient remove a splinter from the inside. It was so cool! But then shortly after that, we walked all the way over through what was once called the CommuniCore at the center of the park, right behind where the Spaceship Earth sphere is. Upon arriving at the east side of it, we were heading towards the Magic Eye Theater at the Imagination Pavilion to see “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.” It was the only attraction in that area that was still in operation that time. I can still remember the shock I felt at the scene with the running mice.

Just as after we finished that, my dad forced me to sit still and wait for him and everyone else while they were going through the “Land Pavilion.” At that point, I was alone. I had no one to watch over me. I just sat there politely at that bench looking at the walls that had been boarded up outside the Imagination Pavilion. By the time I had come to Florida then, the original version of the “Journey Into Imagination” ride had been closed down for a refurbishment and the second version was closed and being reconstructed internally because of all the hateful criticism the guests were expressing at it. Mostly because you two were no longer in the ride as the animatronic figures they knew and loved. Later, the third version opened up to the public. They brought Figment back, but you, Dreamfinder, you were still gone…much to everyone’s disappointment. Which is why what I’m about to tell you is likely enough to make a thousands fans really jealous…at least on one end.

While I was waiting for my family to come back, I couldn’t help but hear a little tingling sound in my ears. It was so peculiar. I assumed it was a sound effect that was coming from one of the surround speakers around me or at one of the other nearby attractions, but that wasn’t really the case. I look around but I couldn’t see anything. All I knew was that it was coming straight from the Imagination Pavilion somewhere. So I left the spot my dad told me to sit at to look around and investigate. The closer I got to the pavilion, the louder I heard the tingling grow. I turn a corner of those boarded walls, hardly realizing that I had just disappeared from public view. And that was when I first met these little sparks here. I was astonished at the sight of them. I mistook them for either fairies or will-o-wisps, whichever way it was. There were three of them then and I heard them all tingling and chirping amongst themselves as if they had their own language I couldn’t understand. Not yet. Suddenly, one of them came up to me, it took me by the hand and guided me a couple of steps forward, but I was scared. I wasn’t feeling the need to move another step. I just couldn’t believe these small beings even exist. The other two sparks came up and they gently pushed me forward. I figured that they were trying to tell me that it was all right for me to follow them like they wanted to show me something. So I did. These little sparks guided me into the main building that was closed off from the public. The doors were all locked, but we managed to get inside through a hole in the glass that I heard was accidentally made during the renovation. It was a large enough hole for me to crawl though, so I didn’t get any cuts from it. Ah! I forgot I still have a couple cuts from yesterday at the academy. Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. It’s not as bad as it looks.

We enter the pavilion all empty and abandoned. Everything in there is covered with plastic tarp so none of whatever material would either fall off or get cut up would affect them. The cars were covered, the controls were turned off, and all of the other props that decorated the room were covered and unoperational, too. There was a canvas tarp on the floor. I suspected they were going to do some painting in there. The sparks took me through the loading zone and into the darkness where somewhere in it I never realized would be a door that would lead us to the most fascinating place I'd ever see. You guys came through a door that said, “Dream Lab,” right? Well, that’s the current way to come in here, I had only just realized some time ago when the news announced a sudden leak of pink smoke coming out from there. But back then, the entrance to this place was a mirror in the Theater Arts scene that was left behind in the original version of the ride. That’s where the sparks had led me. One of them went ahead first and disappeared going through the mirror. I remember the shocked expression I had on my face when I saw my reflection in the aftermath. The spark had entered through the mirror, leaving behind a ripple in the glass that would have looked so deceiving to be some sort of…I don’t know. I suppose some kind of plastic or fluid ripple like when a stone touches a watery surface ans sinks, to say the least.

As the other sparks went through the mirror, I closed my eyes and I followed them. The weird sensation I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt before, like I was being filtered through fabric into tiny particles only to be reconstructed as I entered the other side. When we were all safely through the mirror, I was brought to this place. I discovered a place that was nothing I had ever imagined before in my life. This place…do you even know what this place is? Do you? As of now, we are standing in the place where people had always assumed it was upstairs where the ride is. This…is the real Imagination Pavilion! It's is the real deal! I saw everything in here light up and come alive! There were gadgets with small flashing lights and large valves and pressure meters. I saw chests opening up themselves with clapping hands that also fly away from me when I got too close. I saw many colors flooding all around me on the floors and the walls as they climb up all the way to the ceiling. The nature gardens that were here, all of the flowers lived and breathed like real people…kind of like Alice in Wonderland. Oh, Dreamfinder, you thought that too? Awesome! And then I saw sunbeams and rainbows and feathers and musical notes and everything! There were hexagon tiles on the floors called Stepping Tones. Anytime you’d step on one of those you’d hear a particular sound coming from it. The halls were all filled with music. Each time you’d walk from one hallway to the next you can’t even tell the music turning off key or fading or missing a beat. It’s as if no matter where you’d go, the music is always fully synchronized in a symphony of different genres. And it just kept going and going and going and going and going like it never had an ending. I’m no good with writing or understanding which of those music notes make those sounds, but I can remember the music that had played here in my mind. It never left my head...ever. It was enough to overthrow and overwhelm the music I’d hear at the Disney parks back when I worked there. That’s how catchy of a song it is.

These sparks, they’ve guided me all of this place, though I couldn’t help but notice that they were looking for someone in particular. Perhaps a much bigger spark that could have been their leader, or maybe they were guiding me here to stay with them forever, be their playmate and help me forget the life I had lived in. I still kind of feel that way about them today. I mean you’ve got to admit these beings are wonderful and beautiful in their own ways. If everyone had at least one of them as their companions, I believe the whole world would be a lot kinder. 

As we were coming up to the Science and Technology Room, I suddenly heard a couple of voices coming from in there. That was when the sparks went off without me. Once again, I was just standing there all by myself. But this time, I was at the mercy of my own curiosity wandering off all over the place. I doubt most children that young in age would notice anything scientific yet being that it would probably be too advanced for their minds to consume yet. That’s how it was with my mind back then, so everything I saw in that room had intrigued me, catching my eyes with their geometrically constructed contraptions. I had seen machines before in my young age, one of them being a compacter for trash and recyclables, but I never saw machines quite like these. In fact, I highly doubt anyone still has today. I started exploring the Science Room, observing every machine they had in here, trying so hard to figure out how they worked. Suddenly, I touched one of those machines and it started getting out of control. All I could do was scream and hide. But in the process of running away I tripped over a cable and fell. I don’t remember what I landed on, I know it was something hard and sharp, I may have actually broke a leg and scraped my knees when they banged them on the ground first. I couldn’t move. I was filled with terror as I watched the machine still sputtering with sparks and moving uncontrollably. I didn’t know if it was ever going to end. But just as I thought the mechanism was about to burst, someone had stopped it.

“Stupid child!” someone yelled. “Do you have any idea how long it took for us to build that?”

I look up and I see the same three sparks that brought me here along with a man. The man came up to me with his shadow covering my whole body. He looked real angry. He had his hands in fists on his waist, his knees were locked and his whole upper side was leaning right over me. You know him. He’s the one who had imprisoned one of these little sparks back at the academy. That’s right. It was Dr. Channing. He was there alright. He was there when this whole thing started. And he was a lot younger then, too. It was the first time I ever met him and even then I started having a bad vibe coming from him. He started yelling at me for starting that machine and breaking it to pieces. I guess some of the parts inside it got melted while it was sputtering. He was just as bad as my father. The yelling, I mean. And I knew for sure he was going to hit me, too. But just as he raised his hand to do it, another man comes in. No one you know, but he seemed to have rushed out just as quickly as Dr. Channing raised his fist in the air.

This man…he was really something else. Heh-heh. Now that I think about it, he was a lot like you, Dreamfinder. And I mean really! When he came out, he didn’t seem as horrible as I thought. I remember his first words.

He said, “Nigel! What is it? Did the machine work? What came out of it? I’ll bet it’s a…" wait for it, "...little girl?”

I could tell he was shocked. When I think about it, I guess he was expecting some kind of new imaginative idea coming to life from that machine…whatever it was. I thought I was really going to get in trouble for what I did. When you have one man mad at you, you’re busted. With two men, you’re dead! That’s what I thought, at least. The other man stared at me for a bit while Dr. Channing continued to rant and rant and rant and rant at the machine being destroyed. I quivered on the floor, hurt and afraid. I really believed I was going to get beaten. But as I cringed, I felt a soft hand petting my head. I look up and I see the second man smiling at me.

“You poor thing.” The second man said. “How did you get in here...and in this mess? Are you alright?”

I was scared, still. I didn’t know what to say. The least I could do was try to nod, but I couldn’t. Every time I moved a muscle, it would only make me cringe and my leg would hurt more. All I could do was shut my eyes tight and whimper. His shadow overcame me as he picked me up in his arms and I cried a little with my head buried in his chest.

“Poor thing?” Dr. Channing shouted. “That girl destroyed the Dream Combobulator. It took use over a year to build!”

“Nigel, have a heart!” said the second man. “This child is hurt! I’m taking her to the patient’s room to mend her as best as possible. Come along now, my dear.”

I didn’t like the sound of the “patient’s room.” When someone says something about a “patient,” that usually means doctors. And God knows I was never into seeing the doctor as a kid. I’m still like that today. But that was the least of my worries. As we, as in the second man, the three sparks and me, were leaving the room, I noticed that the rooms were changing shapes. The colors were changing, the furniture around us were morphing, and the atmosphere in the room became totally different. The next thing I knew, we were instantly walking right into the patient’s room. As if by magic, we were instantly transported from the previous room to another! And he was the one that made it happen! I asked him how he did it.

His response was, “My dear child, it takes a great deal of imagination to get from one place to another like this.”

I didn’t understand what he meant that time. I mean, was I supposed to believe that he used his imagination to transport the both of us to another room? Well since I was a child, I was likely to believe anything. He then placed me on the patient’s table thing and took a look at my leg. I remember groaning at him while he checked. He told me to be calm and keep still while he did his work. I’d go into the details of how he actually did, but I hardly believe that even you two would believe me. Long story short, he used his imagination to help heal my leg back to normal. He helped me stand on my feet when he finished. That was when we finally made out our introductions. I told him my name first and then he told me his.

“Rachel?” he said. “That is indeed a very lovely name. My name is Elias Dean Finder. If you’d like, you can call me ‘Uncle Eli.’”

And so I did. He was really nice to me. Uncle Eli was perhaps the nicest and most interesting person I had ever known in my childhood. He was an artist, an author, a pilot, an actor, a musician, an innovator, and a scientist; a multi-purpose kind of man, if you will. But he was more than that to me. For all the time I’ve known him, he’s treated me like how a real father should. I was even tempted at one point or another to call him dad. If anything, I was probably desperate to. He told me that he and Dr. Channing hardly get any visitors here in the Imagination Pavilion and that he’s very happy that I came.

Then the sparks came back around. They were floating around us, murmuring and chanting. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying then, but I could tell they were being nice to me because they kept nudging at my cheeks so softly. It tickled me. To feel the substance on these little guys is like touching baby alpaca fur just after it’s born. They kept cuddling up around me, feeling me and tickling me. And every time I giggled they’d giggle back. That was when Uncle Eli told me that these sparks can be understood; if I learned hard enough I can understand a word they say. I tried to see if at least one of them would understand me. I simply said hello and asked if any of them would like to play with me. I didn’t think they would understand me right then, but they did! And what’s more, they talked back to me and I immediately understood it! Even in today’s time, they keep calling me their Mama. “My Mama! My Mama,” they kept chanting. They must really think I’m their mother somehow. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but every time I hear them call me that, my heart would warm up inside. It gave me more than enough reason to actually have the desire to be a mother when I’d grow up.

Uncle Eli was intrigued. He told me that he’s never seen the sparks react like this before. He realized that I was very special to him and the sparks in some way. I didn’t really believe it, but I took his word for it. My shyness always got the better of me. But after a while, I began to feel more comfortable being around Uncle Eli and the sparks. The longer I was with him, the longer I wanted to stay. In fact, he liked me so much he asked me if I would consider being his apprentice. He saw something in me that I never would have guessed. Then again, I still don’t know what. Nevertheless, I still said "yes!" I was super delighted and excited. It was the best thing that’s happened in my youth. Well, my much younger youth.

But before I could say yes, I had forgotten that I was supposed to wait outside the Land Pavilion and my family could be looking for me any moment. I told Uncle Eli my situation and said that I had to go back. The sparks got so upset they started crying. They didn’t want me to leave and neither did Eli, but Eli was very understanding to let me go. That was when he thought of a possible solution. I followed him to his office where he gave this lovely blue mirror right here. He says it’s a magic mirror. Anything I want to see, a person, a place, an object, I’d could look through the glass and see for myself. He told me that anytime I every wanted to see him, anything I need I could call on him. He also said that if I believed enough, keep a clear mind and a great imagination and recite the magic words, I could easily transport myself right back here and see him and the spark anytime I want.

These are the words he taught me. He said, “Watch carefully. Listen closely. See what you can see. Through the power of words and the magic in your mind, you can be wherever/whatever you want to be.”

Uncle Eli told me that originally, that mantra was only a code of corny spell book words that only appeased younger minds during the turn of the twentieth century to the mid 1940s back when fairytales were in high popularity, but with persistence he found a way to make it work in real life. And one of those references being in doing so had mostly come from you two, Dreamfinder and Figment. Dreamfinder especially. The whole idea was that after you saved London somehow, your story had spread throughout the world. And sometime after that it had reached all the way to Kansas City, Missouri where a young preteen Walt Disney was living at the time. Throughout his life and career, your story had inspired him to go beyond the limits of his imagination in filmmaking and storytelling. When he decided on building EPCOT, he wanted to make a innovation center with a theme based on your adventures as a tribute to your memory. But because of his lifelong smoking habit, he never got to live to see EPCOT or the original Journey Into Imagination ride take place. Uncle Eli, along with some other actors, were hired by the Disney Company to dress up and impersonate as the Dreamfinder carrying a Figment puppet in one arm. And for some particular reason, Uncle Eli was the best interpreter…next to Ron Schneider, of course. Still, I thought Eli was better at it. He spent a lot of time reliving your character and inspiring the guests at EPCOT to dream big. But when he wasn’t on shift, he’d settle back here in the underbelly of the Imagination Pavilion, studying what makes imagination become material with the help of your notes from building your Mesmonic…whatever it was. In the process, he came across these magic words, made them work, and recited them to me every time I’d forget or miss a word.

I said to him that I would remember these words forever. I made it my solemn oath. And when I did, he smiled at me. I could tell that we were going to be such great friends, and we did. He escorted me back to up to the park. I said my goodbyes to him and returned to my family. Thankfully, I got back to the spot I was at in time before my family got back. But that wasn’t going to be the end of our relationship.

Every day and night throughout the next two weeks when my dad wouldn’t ridicule me, I gave myself all the chances I could get in visiting Uncle Eli with my imagination. Uncle Eli was always glad to see me every time I came. It didn’t matter to him if I came in uninvited. He always did his best to put down whatever he was doing to accompany me and give me a real great time. He taught me how to read and write in the Literature Room (the nicer portion or the room, really) and when we’d finish he tell me a lot of great stories. Some of them in books, while the others he shared from his life experiences. I always found the latter of the stories the most hilarious and entertaining. He taught me the value and fun of art and music, hence explaining my reason why I like to draw a lot. And as for music, I’m always too shy to sing but whenever I’d get tired and sleepy, Uncle Eli would sing to me softly until I’d actually fall asleep in his arms where I would wake up back in the place I started my imagination process in visiting him. That being where I came from when I visited him. Sometimes he’d even place a small kiss on my forehead with his beard tickling my skin, assuring me that I was far safer with him than anywhere else in the world. And I believed it. Those were the best moments of my visits. And in the Theater Room, we’d play dress up and do little skits. I remember how Eli always kept making Dr. Channing and the sparks sit down and watch me twirl around and dance, much to the doctor’s dissatisfaction. Channing, he...he never had much of an appreciation for the arts. He’d always rather do more of his scientific experiment stuff than do anything fun. The sparks would cheer happily for me, though.

There was once a time when Uncle Eli actually scolded me from trying to open a certain door, however. I remember it was something like…like…a steel door with a small window and a dark black background behind it. He allowed me to open every door I wanted in the Pavilion. But this particular door, he absolutely forbade me from opening. He said that it leads to a place called “the Bewilderness,” as in bewilder, where all of the fears, doubts, and nightmares of every man, woman, and child in the world are stored and can jump out and attack anyone who wanders around in it, including children. At the time, I gave him my word not to go in. But in my curiosity, I had to know what was in there. I ignored the note that warned me of the dangers of the Bewilderness and opened the door slightly just to take a little peek inside it. But as I was about to step inside to see, I heard Uncle Eli calling out to me to see him. It was time for another lesson he was teaching me about imagination and reading. I rushed on over to him, leaving the door slightly opened without realizing it. Little did I know that there was something horrible inside it, ready to enter our dimension and cause havoc to us all.

I loved being with Uncle Eli. I’ve enjoyed my visits here into the Imagination Pavilion. It was the only place I could ever go where I never had to deal with any negativity. But there was one day when I was feeling scared going in there. One night, I dreamt myself back into the lab in my pajamas and was all alone, looking for Uncle Eli and the sparks when I heard some indistinct shouting coming from another room. I crept over to the source and peeked through a slightly opened door into Eli’s office. In there, I saw Dr. Channing and Uncle Eli having an argument. And Dr. Channing looked a lot angrier than usual. He argued something about Uncle Eli canceling a certain project they were working on, one in particular that I believe Dr. Channing was really into. And the reason being is that he was going to continue his experiments for his own selfish deeds. He wasn’t trying to help make the world a better place or pursue his career and his dreams. He wanted to gain ultimate power by using science to create more sparks of inspiration to figure out how to control them for himself. But when Uncle Eli decided to stop the experiments, the doctor started to take offense to it. The louder Dr. Channing got, the more Uncle Eli realized what he was trying to do. I’m guessing that Eli might have fired him right there. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have watched Dr. Channing explode and come right towards me to the door. I hid behind the door and watched him storm out of the room, angry and filled with total hate. And then I watched Uncle Eli come out of his office next. He looked really upset. We thought that would be the last time the two of us would ever see of Dr. Nigel Channing. I held Uncle Eli’s hand in sympathy, hoping everything was going to be all right. But just when I thought life was going to get better, one way or another, things got worse.

It was two days before my last day in Florida and my vacation time was going to end, meaning that I was going to go back home to Los Angeles with my family and leave all of this behind. We decided to come back to Epcot the next day to end our fun there before packing up and going home. The closer the end got, the more worried I became. Once I’d leave Florida, I didn’t know whether or not I would ever return to the Imagination Pavilion and see Uncle Eli or the sparks again. That night, I dreamt myself back over there and informed Uncle Eli that I was going to leave soon even though I didn’t want to go on account that I’d be so far away from him now. He took me by the hands to this heart and said not to worry about it. So long as I believed in him, in magic, in imagination, he’d always be with me forever. And with the magic mirror I could see him. And in my sleep I could physically visit him anytime I wanted. I had forgotten about that for a moment, and then later all this time I've been away. However, the next day would be the last day I could ever see him in person to say my final goodbyes. 

The next morning, when we arrived at the park, I made sure we’d walked straight over by the Imagination Pavilion. I pretended that I didn’t want to see “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” again and agreed to wait outside while the rest of the family went in. My mom told my dad to watch over me this time, but knowing him he was selfish enough to leave me alone again, he sneaked into the theater with the rest of the crowd and sit in the back of the theater. But I didn’t care. It gave me enough time to sneak back into the Imagination Pavilion and see Uncle Eli and the sparks one last time. I followed the same route the sparks had shown me before as usual. Back offstage, into the building and through the mirror into the real Imagination Pavilion. I was feeling very bittersweet about coming back on the last day. To say goodbye to dear friends like them is just too sad.

I search through the halls of this magical place one last time. It was a shame that I’d have to leave it all behind. The longer I searched for them, the more badly I wanted to stay forever. This place has everything! It’s everything a kid could ever dream of. It was the only dream come true I’ve ever had in my life and I didn’t want to let it go. And Eli...oh, Eli...so badly...so badly, I wanted him to be my father. I wanted to leave all of this shit behind me, every horrid moment I had ever lived in, watching my childhood be wasted...I wanted to stay and be his daughter. His own real, beautiful, loving daughter...who would be at his side to the very end, dreaming of a better world with a grand future while living in one no matter where we would be. So long as we would have been together, that's all that would have mattered.

But that was never meant to be, because when I finally found the sparks coming out of a room with Uncle Eli following behind them, I thought, at first, they were playing a game of tag or hide and seek and I wanted to play along. But as I got closer, I noticed that something wasn’t right. Uncle Eli was not acting like himself. He looked real horrified and scared. I did not like the looks of this. When Uncle Eli spotted me he charged right up to me, grabbed me by my torso and carried me off to a dark corner. He put me down and gripped me by the shoulders saying that something terrible has come up and that I should have never come back. I had to get away, he says. In a frenzy, he grabs my wrist and we start running towards the foyer. That was when, for the first time, I saw…him.

As we come up to the foyer, I saw something I never would have dreamed of seeing: a monstrosity of great proportion!. Larger than life! It was big and black and very, very, very ugly. You saw what he was shaped like in the security video Fye had in the academy, but neither of you had truly seen what I saw. If you two were in my shoes at that time, you would’ve really seen how horrifying it was to be there. It was much like a dark ghost, no— an evil spirit! He had an evil grin with pearly white teeth that were as big as I was, which was like about...fifty inches tall! Its claws were incredibly big and sharp and its big green eyes resembled large emeralds being shone in sunlight to blind people forever. His eyes were green, but I remember them turning red only when it got angry at something. Sound familiar to you? I suppose he simulates quite a bit like that Doubtfinder person you guys keep saying you've previously fought against. The difference is what he was called. His name...was Nebulus.

I froze at the sight of him. He was terrifying as hell! He ranged to over fifty feet from top to bottom, maybe up to a hundred feet more or less. Its body was flowing like fire and as pitch black as night. But what made me fear it most was its smile…its large, ugly, disgusting smile that made my whole spine crawl only to freeze with terror in all levels. My eyes were widened with fear. My blood turned cold. My mind went wild! I was ready to scream when the monster turned its head towards me and Uncle Eli. The only screams I had heard before I could were the shrieks of these frightened little sparks.

With a wave of Nebulus’ black giant arms he started a giant whirlwind. It was big enough to start a tornado in the heart of America! At Uncle Eli’s side, I watched the tapestries blowing violently and the glass, rock and stone materials chipping, cracking and breaking from the walls, windows and pillars. The wailing of the winds overthrew the sweet symphony of the song that had always played when I came. And if there was anything else louder than the wind, it was Nebulus laughing and cackling at its might. 

But Nebulus wasn’t alone. Standing just by the entrance to the Art Department, where the door is shaped like a jar of paint with a brush, stood Dr. Channing himself. I thought he had come back to help us get rid of this evil, but when I saw him let out an evil smirk and a shocked expression of disbelief from Uncle Eli, I realized that Dr. Channing had betrayed us all and had called Nebulus to attack the pavilion. I don’t know how he did it, but he did it. And because of this, there was no one left to help us. To make matters even worse, in recognition of the potential these little sparks have in regards to producing great big ideas, Nebulus started to inhale all of the little sparks it could swallow to feed his appetite for power like Peanut M&M's in one gulp! All of the dreams they could have made come true for many dreamers throughout the world…wasted! As I heard them crying out to me shouting “MAMA! MAMA!” and shrieking for help…I was mortified! I couldn’t look! I couldn’t look, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t stand to watch this any longer. My last visit to the Imagination Pavilion turned into a living nightmare.

Then Uncle Eli, feeling hurt and betrayed by Dr. Channing’s ambitions, started charging to Nebulus, reciting the words he had taught me and summoned all the powers of imagination he could gather. The fight was epic! I watched Uncle Eli conjure airplanes and trains to ram and shoot at the monster, as well as using natural elements and theatrical illusions. But despite all of his efforts, it wasn’t enough to beat Nebulus. That was when, in my greatest horror, I watched Nebulus grab Uncle Eli in his fists, squeezing the air out of his lungs as Eli struggled to break free, but couldn’t. In seconds, I saw Nebulus open a portal in the ceiling where more of these little sparks got sucked in and more destruction had been brought up to this place. It had come to my attention that Nebulus was about to escape the Imagination Pavilion taking Uncle Eli with him. I cried out to Uncle Eli. I watched his head turn back to me as he shouted at me to get out of the pavilion safely. He told me to run…run away as fast as I could without looking back. But my feet were numb; I couldn’t feel my legs much to my horror. Then Channing comes running up to grab me in his possession. I kick him away from his grasp and started breaking out fast from the scene, leaving him on the ground hurt and feeling affected by the strong winds the monster had created. And just as I was leaving through the nearest arch, I turned around and watched Eli screaming as Nebulus had entered the portal with him and disappeared. 

My eyes were filled with tears it made my vision all blurry, almost enough to blind me from seeing where I needed to go. I never got to see the Imagination Pavilion in its prime one last time as I ran out. But just before I left, I came across the steel door I had left ajar. The one Uncle Eli had forbidden me to open. That was when I realized that I was the one who caused this mess...this horrible nightmare come to life! Inside, I saw more monsters on the verge of crawling out into the light of my world, our world, to wreak havoc like Nebulus just did. Things were going bad enough as it was, I don't think I would've been able to stand any more of whatever madness that would have come out of the wretched place. Despite my fears, as the monsters were coming out faster and faster within reach, I quickly jumped to the door and closed it just in time. The winds had finally ceased, everything that was flying had fallen back to the ground, but I still felt a strong chill in the air. It wasn't over for me. It wasn't over for anyone. No...it was only the beginning of something horrible! So awful that at first glance you would only see the light of day just seconds before dropping down to your own deathbed...or deadspot. Whichever comes first. As I manage to take in a few deep breaths, I found the sign I had ignored that once stood on the door. It was all torn from all the ruckus. So I found another sheet of paper along with a broken shard of charcoal and rewrote the warning the last sign had, never to allow anyone from opening the door again and make the mistake I had made. I found a roll of duct tape to stick the note on the door, hoping that when someone would ever come across this door again, God forbid, and should decide to open it again themselves, they wouldn't. 

Suddenly, I felt a much stronger chill running through my already freezing cold blood, accompanied by the echo of an ominously sinister creature still lurking within the pavilion to haunt me and claim me next. I rushed through the same route from the now-abandoned, recently-destroyed, Imagination Pavilion back to the real world through the mirror I came in from for the last time until I managed to get the main level of the loading dock of the ride. That was when I heard Nebulus’ laughter echoing again in the hall and realized that he had not completely disappeared yet. I dashed through that room with a beating heart bursting in all directions within my rib cage. I even felt the cold breath of his being overwhelming me throughout my body and in the room as I escaped. You saw that happen. It was all in the security footage that Fye showed you before, much to the shock I had in wondering how the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus got a hold of it from Disney in the first place.

Finally, I was out of the building and running for my life, trying to find my parents and siblings. As I was heading down the path to where the Land Pavilion is, I heard a roar blasting out in the air. I turn around and sure enough, I saw Nebulus right behind me in the flesh, or whatever it's made of, making a beeline on my trail. I ran as fast as I could to get away, but it was not enough. I felt the cold icy grip of the monster grabbing me and pinning me to the ground. To the guests who were there seeing it happen, they couldn’t see Nebulus. They only saw me “tripping” and falling down, making a scene, which made things even more terrifying for me. Since no one could see Nebulus, no one could help me escape from it. And with Uncle Eli gone, I was left alone, helpless. I looked into its eyes with great fear. He smiled his evil grin at me, chuckling and mocking me at my weakest. He strangely pets his hand softly over my head, much to my discomfort and horror, telling me to stay out of his way and never to dream big ever again. Not even a single thought. And if I do, he’d come back and claim me next as he did with Uncle Eli. As he laughed, I screamed and cried. It was the loudest scream I had ever made and it was the most amounts of tears I had made in my entire life! There was nothing I could do to get away from this monstrosity. The least I was able to do was kick it away, but that did me no good. It just amused him more.

Suddenly, as I kept screaming for my life, I was abruptly pulled to my feet. I thought for sure it was the end; the end of my vacation, the end of my childhood, the end of my life! I screamed louder and louder and louder, but it was no use. I didn’t know what else to do. When I opened my eyes, finally, I realized that it wasn’t Nebulus who grabbed me anymore. It was my father. Angered by the scene of the trauma I had just encountered and the fact of how I had snuck away from them to begin with, he slapped me in the face and pulled me away from the public, saying how this was the biggest embarrassment I had ever caused him and how embarrassed he was to have me as a daughter. And quite honestly, for once in my life, I was actually happy to see my dad again. It was much better to be around him than to see that monster again.

When we finally came back home to Los Angeles, my mom had me put in through a series of psychiatric therapy to get out what needed to be said. Of course, knowing my dad, he said that seeing a psychiatrist was for loonies and I was biggest loon of them all. I lied to my therapist and everyone I had ever known that I was having a huge fear of bees. Every time I would see a bee or two, or perhaps even a swarm of bees, I’d shriek to my death. But it was all a lie. I didn’t think anyone would actually believe my real story and understand what I had just been through. The only person I was ever able to talk about my worries, my doubts, and my deepest fears was Uncle Eli. He understood me, he loved me, he was my only friend. And because of me for causing this to happen, and with Nebulus' and Dr. Channing's thirsts for power, it was me who had sealed his fate and had them take him away from me! I had thought for sure I was going to have a second chance of having a real childhood, but after those events I felt like I had been completely ripped off. Up until today, I never returned to the Imagination Pavilion, I never saw Uncle Eli or the little sparks again, and all of the dreams that had once flourished in my mind had faded. I couldn’t go back. And even if I could, I wouldn’t have. It would have brought me closer and closer to the brink of actually encountering that monster again and possibly cause everyone and myself anymore harm. 

Of course, I couldn’t live a full life without Disney. Hence the reason why I took up the position of Daytime Custodial when I applied all the way up to the point when you and I first met and got me fired. It was my only escape from remembering the tragic events that had happened. The only disadvantage was that every time I wanted to talk to someone about whatever problems I had, I’d think of Uncle Eli and then I’d remember that he is not here anymore. Worst of all, I know that he was not going to come back anytime soon. Even after I had made the one dream come true, that is working at Disneyland after all this time, there was nobody dear or personal I could trust or get excited to talk about it to except for Eli. Through an act of disobedience, the curiosity that had overcome me had brought about Uncle Eli’s demise.


	40. Chapter 40

“And now…” said Rachel with her back towards her friends holding one of the little sparks, “because of what I have done, I am forever doomed to live the rest of my life with this awful memory. I’m forbidden to talk about what happened. I’m forbidden to stand my ground against anything. I’m forbidden to dream. Up until now, I’ve tried to keep it that way so I wouldn’t get into anymore trouble despite how horrible it has made me feel every single day of my life. But in all of my efforts, the memory of all these events, they always keep coming back to haunt me until the end of my days. I had hoped that…if you two hadn’t come up and convinced to come along with you, I would have ended my misery a lot sooner…one way or another.”

The Dreamfinder and Figment, bewildered by the words Rachel had spoken and unable to neatly contain the idea in their minds to their full extent, they stand where they are stiff in numbness, staring at the back of their most unfortunate friend. They watch each of the little sparks float closer to their “Mama” whimpering. An animated eyebrow wrinkles upon Dreamfinder’s forehead. He can see the girl’s arms and hands trembling in fear. Though his realization of what Rachel has really gone through throughout the course of her life has overcome his expression. As for Figment, his eyes turn red with frustration as they grow big and wide and full of tears, listening to Rachel’s story. He takes a handkerchief from behind his back, as if he made it appear completely out of thin air (or better yet, imagination), and blows his snout consistently like the sound of a horn.

“That’s why you were afraid to come up to the center stage at the expo!” Dreamfinder realized. “Because you were afraid that if you thought of something imaginative and made it happen, Nebulus would have come back to take you next.”

“Waaaaa-ha-ha-haaaaa! Oh Rachel!” Figment cries. “That’s so sad!”

“That’s awful, Rachel! I knew all the time there was something wrong, but this…this is too much.”

“Do you believe me then?” asked Rachel.

At that moment, Dreamfinder’s head hangs slightly downward with his eyes lightly closed. His thoughts are coming to order. He had been wrong about Dr. Channing this whole time. The truth about Rachel that has finally been unraveled, which had occupied both him and Figment for almost an hour, has made his whole body, along with the rest of his nervous system, quite unsettling. In the past he thought, however, there have been times where if he and Figment have ever gotten into a situation just as bad, there’s always a way to solve it. They are not usually like Rachel’s, but that still leaves no exception. There is no doubt that this sort of predicament can be helped as far as he is concerned. 

“…Yes.” said Dreamfinder in a sedately grim tone. “What can we do?”

“Nothing.” Rachel says, plainly.

“What? What do you mean nothing? There has to be a way to save him!”

“I tried to find Uncle Eli for ages. There is no clue I could find in knowing his whereabouts. Only Dr. Channing and Nebulus knows where he is. And if Channing wouldn’t tell me where Uncle Eli is, then it’s obvious that Nebulus won’t tell me either…wherever he is. There is no hope. No path. No way out.”

“So Dr. Channing really was as you said the whole time.” said Dreamfinder in his disbelief. “A power-hungry snake seeking a source to keep himself at the top.”

“And a minion of Nebulus to top it off.” Rachel adds. “Plus, he always reminded me of Sir Robin from Monty Python and the Holy Grail for some reason; a bit of a sissy in his own way. Even though I was the one who opened the door that released Nebulus, it’s obvious that he was the one who convinced Nebulus to take Uncle Eli out for him as a way of revenge to canceling his project. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone getting in his way. Including the Dreamfinder!”

“Until we showed up! When we entered the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus this time, we’ve opened another chance to get into Dr. Channing’s way and stopping his experiments, which we just…did…yesterday. He got fired for keeping that little spark hostage and hurting Fye.”

“Uh-oh.” said Figment as he trembles.

“This isn’t good.” said Rachel in a grave tone. “If Channing is fired from his job now like he was fifteen years ago, there is no telling on what he’ll plan to do next. If anything, he could recreate the same phenomenon that happened right here in this very spot with all of us in it, or worse! No one was following you when you came in, right?”

“Nope, we didn’t see anyone at all.”

“We made sure no one saw us come into the building.” assured Dreamfinder. “If someone was following us, we would have noticed it. We even checked around the area for any suspicious people before we came in.”

“Well so far nothing bad has happened, thank goodness.” said Rachel. “It was nobody but me, Yuna, and the sparks in here before you two came in.”

“Mama! Mama!” The little sparks chirped as they happily swarm around Rachel, making her giggle. “Mama! Mama! Mama!”

“Yes, little ones, I was talking about you.” said Rachel with an assuring smile as she cradles a few of them in her arms. “Mama’s here.

Dreamfinder then notices a small glimmer twinkles in Rachel’s eyes as watches her little sparks cooing softly, making themselves comfortable in her arms. A new ray of warmth enters his heart once again, seeing a warmer side come out of her. However, he could not show it physically in accordance to what had just recently happened back at the academy. He wanted to savor this moment, though. It’s the first time he has seen Rachel smile for a long while and it seems that these sparks are the cure.

Quite interestingly, it has opened a new possibility in knowing what other mannerisms these sparks must have had before they are made corporeal. They, both Dreamfinder and Figment, notice a slight change of pigment in their auras as they assemble together with content around Rachel. They seem to have changed in a lighter pink hue. 

“Mama…we love our Mama.” the sparks murmured.

“Aww…I love you guys, too.” Rachel murmurs back. “…So much.”

“How cute!” said Figment. “They’re so small and teeny-tiny and precious!” 

“So these little sparks really do believe you’re their mother?” Dreamfinder asks.

“It appears that way, yes.” said Rachel with a smile. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, I don’t know what they really see in me, but whatever it is it makes me feel very light on my feet. These guys, they’re so soft and fuzzy and warm. Makes me think of considering having my own…well, chances are that’ll never happen to me in this life. They’ve been a part of me ever since I first came here and met Uncle Eli. And their memory has haunted me throughout my life thinking of how they’ve all been swallowed by Nebulus himself. To see them all here alive and well right now, I would never forgive myself to see them relive that same fate again. …I love them.”

“And you’d give anything to protect them, would you?” Figment asked, receiving a nod back from Rachel.

“Hmm…I think I know who these little sparks actually are!” Dreamfinder realizes in great excitement.

“Who?”

“Tell us, O’ Wise One.” Rachel sasses.

“I believe those sparks are fragments of YOUR imagination, Rachel!” Dreamfinder assesses. 

“What?”

“It’s only a theory, though I rather not say it until I’m completely sure. Is there a chance we can take another look around here and see what’s been left behind?”

“Are you serious?” Rachel reacts. “You want to dig around this entire place to find remnants of Uncle Eli’s belongings before he vanished and some other material you two could use for the Dream Machine?”

“Yep!” said Figment happily.

“That’s kind of the plan.” Dreamfinder blushes.

“…Well, I guess I can show you around the place.” Rachel sighs solemnly. “Give you a brief tour of what’s left of my last remaining crumbled bit of childhood.”

“Yippee!” Figment cheers.

“How did you guys find a way in here anyway? And where’s Alex?”

“We used a machine Capri made that finds dream power on the loose and followed it here. Alex is back at their house and he’s going to stay there until he graduates from the academy. He wanted us to thank you also for helping him get here.”

“That’s good. I’d imagine I’ve made quite a stir there when I…you know…yesterday.”

“If it’s any consolation,” said Dreamfinder, “what you did actually saved the academy! The Chairman is actually forgiving you for taking the spark from them on account it could have given away the privacy of the academy to the public with no solid explanation.”

“So…I’m in the good and clear from here then?” Rachel asks. “I get a free pass while Dr. Channing gets his butt kicked out of the school? That actually puts quite a bit of weight off my chest.”

“Don’t push your luck.”

“Let’s get started then. The very long depressing version of ‘This is My Life.’ ”

“Lead on, Rach!” said Figment.

“We’ll start with that room over…there.” Rachel said. “The Science and Technology Room. That sounds like your field of work, being an inventor yourself.”

With Rachel and the sparks leading the way, the Dreamfinder and Figment follows them towards the designated room. The sparks dance around and behind Rachel in a happy flurry. They nudge themselves against her cheek and neck, tickling her to the giggles. It’s surprised both the Dreamfinder and Figment; they’ve never seen Rachel react this way. She seems to have the attitude of a real loving mother. That flicker of warmth continues to rise inside of Dreamfinder all over again. It’s almost enough to put a smile on his face. He doesn’t even realize how he is speed walking towards the girl. Even in his excitement, Figment manages to flap his small dragon wings faster to catch up to them.

The Science and Technology Room is crawling with broken pipes and dented metal; all throughout the walls and the ceiling. Broken glasses from capsules, television screens and test tubes are shattered all over the floor. The switches and buttons on the walls and broken control panels have been melted and hardened. A crank that hangs on the ceiling is bent up and a giant blue glass globe of the Earth is cracked like an egg. It’s not so empty in the Science Room. There are piles of machinery and tables covered in dusty white sheets bringing up much of Figment’s curiosity.

“What’s all this?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Oooh…Look at all these neat stuff!” said Figment with his eyes grown big in his excitement. “What are they?”

“Back in the day,” Rachel started, “Uncle Eli and Dr. Channing used to build these machines that would help them further their research in knowing what imagine does, why, how, when, where it happens and what it’s made of. I remember the tall stacks of books they had to pile up when I first came in.”

“Look at all of these books!” said Figment in his excitement. “There must be a whole gazillion of them!”

“Goodness!” said Dreamfinder, as he picks up a book and flips through the pages. “By the looks of these machines and how many books there are, they sure have been busy. They must have found out a lot more about the effects of imagination than I have.”

“And look! Electron beams and crystal prisms, gyroscopes and magnetisms, holograms in three dimensions! I love it! Hey Rachel, what this thing?”

The dragon pulls a sheet out from over one of the machines. A cloud of dust puffs up in the air, making the little sparks around him cough little coughs. The head of the mechanism revealed takes the form of an old-fashioned 1920s-30s movie camera. It’s colored in blue in most places and some black on the top, has a small 10x12 inch screen, two levers and switches, a small dial of buttons and a 24-inch camera lens. An adjustable helmet is connected to the machine with multiple tiny wires to the bottom of the screen. The front of the machine is supported by a tripod and solid block of a metal wall with wires and connections inside at the very back with the TV screen on top.

“Peculiar sort of thing, if you ask me.” said Dreamfinder.

“Wow! I remember this!” Rachel exclaims. “The Fancy Filmer Centennial! This machine can actually project, film and record your dreams while you’re asleep! It even works on daydreams, too. You just simply insert this videotape, turn it on at the right coordinates, put on this helmet, and then start dreaming. Once you’re done with your dreaming, the recording stops and you can play back the tape and watch your dreams again over and over and over again! You could dream yourself an entire textbook of any subject you want; technology, mathematics, anything!”

“That’s incredible! I could review all the notes I’d come up with with this machine.”

“I can imagine myself braving through treacherous perils and lead my imaginary people to victory!” Figment adds. “It’ll be like opening a book and becoming the hero of the story!”

“This was my favorite of all the machines Uncle Eli had built,” said Rachel, “and he allowed me to help him test it in case it either works well or if it had any bugs. He always said that dreams work best on kids. We had just about completed it by the time Nebulus came in an attacked.”

“Ouch!” Figment exclaims as he touches the machine and gets affected by an electric spark.

“The machine’s probably a bit outdated by now, probably must have short-circuited by that big gust of wind by Nebulus, but with a little more help in modernizing it this baby can do the job just fine.”

“No…!” Dreamfinder gasps.

“Yeah, it can!” Rachel said. “Give it a good dusting and some paint—”

“Dreamfinder! Is that…?” Figment gasps as well.

“It is!” said Dreamfinder. “Look!”

On a table farthest from them at the other side of the room is what looks like a football helmet sitting on top of it. It’s the only piece of machinery that isn’t covered by an old sheet. The goggle lenses are identical to Dreamfinder’s and Rachel’s goggles when riding the Dream Machine. The golden-bronze metal plating on the sides are in need of some buffing and waxing. The small black strip on the very top is a curly coil strand of tungsten filament; the kind of material that was once used for incandescent light bulbs. Two tiny pressure meters are screwed and bolted just over the left eye lenses. And lastly, a pair of accordion-like spark plugs used to connect with a cable of some kind, which is not present around here on the table.

The shocked and surprised looks on Dreamfinder and Figment’s faces grow bigger and bigger. It’s almost as if that if the helmet had been disposed of in the past, it had just come back to haunt them. They could not believe it. They rush over to the table for a closer look. It couldn’t possibly be for real…could it?

“The Mesmonic Converter!” Figment cries.

“That…that’s impossible! I destroyed it last year at the academy myself!” shouted Dreamfinder. “How is it here?”

“What?” Rachel gasps to her surprise. “That’s the Mesmonic Converter? The thing you’ve been telling me about all this time?”

“Up close and personal!” said Figment.

“I don’t believe it!” Dreamfinder gasps in a wispy voice. “The Mesmonic Converter right in my own hands again. It looks as if I hadn’t shattered it at all. Not even a crack or a dent!”

“That thing means a lot to you, does it?” Rachel asks.

“The first invention I’ve ever made at the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. Heck, it’s the first invention I’ve ever built in my entire life! I created Figment and the Dream Machine with this thing and used it to help save London. And then I had to destroy the helmet to unleash the power of imagination to help the academy last year. This thing should have been destroyed for good!”

“I’d call that a big fat ‘yes.’”

“But if the helmet was destroyed, what’s it doing here?” Figment wonders aloud.

“There must be something on this table that could explain it.” said Dreamfinder, who just snapped out of his sudden shock.

While Dreamfinder observes the helmet, the table becomes even more thrashed and messy as Rachel and Figment search through the scattered papers and piled up books. The papers on the table look like they have been yellowed, crinkled, ripped, and eaten by moths. As the papers go flying around, it rises up another large puff of dust making the two of them sneeze. Finally, Figment’s hand bumps against a torn brown book that was sitting closest to the spot the helmet was at. It is about an inch and a half thick with some of the pages slightly popping out. Like everything else in the room, it looks like it hasn’t been touched or moved for a very long time. Figment picks up the book and flips through the pages. His eyes grow bigger and wider as he skims over the paragraphs.

“Hey, you guys!” said Figment. “Check this out! I found it where the helmet was.”

“Let me see that book.” Dreamfinder ordered. “Hmm…it looks like a notebook of some kind. A journal about researching imagination!”

“My kind of book!” Figment says happily.

“It’s Uncle Eli’s journal!” Rachel exclaims. “I recognize his handwriting anywhere!”

“He must have been chronicling his research on the Mesmonic Converter and the effects it has before Nebulus took him.” Dreamfinder guesses.

“What does it say? What does it say?” Figment asks eagerly. “Tell us what Uncle Eli said.”

“Let’s see…here’s the first page. It says…”

********************************************************************************************************

September 11, 1983.

It’s been six months already since I got hired by Disney to play as the meet-and-greet Dreamfinder at EPCOT. And quite conveniently, it’s been six months since the Journey Into Imagination attraction has finally opened up to the public. It’s such an honor to play as my granduncle the Dreamfinder in tribute to his memory—”

********************************************************************************************************

“WHAT?!” Figment and Rachel scream.

“Elias Dean Finder is another one of my sibling’s descendents?” Dreamfinder gasps in shock. “My very own grandnephew?!”

“I actually did not know that.” said Rachel with eyes stiffly opened wide.

“Only one grand?” Figment said with thought. “He must be the grandson of the second or third oldest sibling in your family, Dreamfinder.”

“I do believe you’re right Figment.” said Dreamfinder with agreement. “I seem to be getting extended family by the masses in this time period. After all, there were six of me, my brothers and sisters.”

“Continue reading, Dreamfinder.” Rachel demanded. “What else does it say?”

********************************************************************************************************

It’s such an honor to play as my granduncle, the Dreamfinder in tribute to his memory and his heroic deeds to the city of London all those years ago. I would have loved to have known him and his little purple dragon, Figment if they hadn’t disappeared in the process. If they were here today, I’m sure they would be deeply honored to have seen the Imagination Pavilion dedicated to them in their honor.

But while my role as my granduncle, along with Ron Schneider, Steve Taylor, Joe Rohde, and Chuck McCann (all of them wonderful actors and friends), is only part time, I was assigned by Disney, MIT, and the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus to conduct a research project on the mental and physical effects of the imagination, picking up where my granduncle had left off before he and Figment disappeared. Before I started my acting shifts as the Dreamfinder, I traveled from Florida to London to learn more about my family roots and to learn about Dreamfinder’s personal life before his journey into imagination began. There, I met up with the brilliant scientist, Dr. Nigel Channing. He, too, has an interest in the effects of imagination, but I believe his views are a bit more practical than how I see them. We’ve talked over lunch and the expression on his face when I told him that I have the Dreamfinder, as one of my past relatives was priceless. He became totally excited over that fact. Especially when I told him my granduncle’s story the way my grandmother, granduncles and grandaunt, and my great-grandmother remembered it. A lot of what I ended up remembering in their point of views just happened to help as clues to solving the Dreamfinder mystery, if it can be called that. I told Dr. Channing about my mission and asked him if he would be interested helping me in my experiments. I’ll never forget the excitement he had in him when he said “yes.”

When we returned back to Florida together, the Walt Disney Company was courteous enough to allow us set up shop in our new research lab deep beneath the bowls of the Imagination Pavilion where we would not be disturbed. The place is wide, empty, and full of darkness with so many rooms and halls to explore, but I believe that with a little loving tender care, a little color, and a great deal of inspiration, I’d be happy to call this place home.

***

July 19, 1985.

The hype of playing my granduncle to the guests in the park has kept my adrenaline running a lot more than usual. I believe it must be a small case of workplace paranoia. But it still hasn’t stopped me from my continuing my research for imagination. I already have Dr. Channing conducting experiments on some volunteers outside of park grounds. We’re trying to understand what people think about in their imaginations with a series of pictures, music and questions while also testing the reactions of psychiatric and neurological brainwaves and how they function. We’ve tried it on many kinds of people: young and old, male and female, gay, lesbian, transgender—”

********************************************************************************************************

“Huh?” Dreamfinder and Figment grunts in confusion.

“Never mind. I’ll explain later.” Rachel sighs in a moan. “It’s a matter of social change that even I don’t understand why it happened and don't want to think about. Keep reading.”

“Okay…”

********************************************************************************************************

…and persons diagnosed with autism, depression, PTSD, and what have you. As different as everyone’s views are, I’ve found that the latter choices I’ve mentioned are in fact the most interesting. Their individual mindsets are unique in many ways. Many of them I’ve have seen nightmares and dreams based on traumatic early childhood and/or events of war, fear of success or fail, fear of death, and obsessions of material possessions. It’s amazing what goes on in peoples’ minds. I am very confident for our mission to be successful.

We’ve finally moved all of our necessary equipment into the laboratory along with redesigning a majority of the rooms built here into many different themes of the Imagination Pavilion: Art, Science, Theater & Film, Literature, among others. I feel that these rooms will serve a great purpose into our imaginative research, though I feel that the further we’re studying this the more strong and effective the rooms’ influence is becoming. Besides, I’ve become quite entertained with them. I might consider actually opening this section of the pavilion to the guests in EPCOT.

***

March 5, 1988.

It took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I’ve finally convinced the Walt Disney Company to open the Imagination portion of the laboratory to the public for the Imagination Pavilion’s 5th Anniversary celebration. It’s a sort of underground version of the Image Works with much more to do and a lot more to explore in the realms of imagination and dreams. We’re calling it Dream LIVE! and the opening ceremony was a success! I’ve been spending a majority of my time playing as the Dreamfinder with the puppet Figment and interacting with the guests, all much to my enjoyment. Nigel thinks that my absence in the laboratory is proving ineffective to our studies, but I beg to differ. While in costume, I’ve been asking the guests what they usually imagine in their free time; preferably children. They seem to have a much vaster world of imagination to explore since they are not yet burdened by the cold facts of reality. Much of the answers I get are either when they imagine fantasy worlds of unicorns and knights in shining armor, the Moon, or any recent entertainment phenomenons like the Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and such. And little does everyone know that a lot of the props in Dream LIVE! are actually working parts used for our experiments with cameras and live footage that we could study everyone thoroughly. Also works well for our job security. The Imaginometer that Dr. Channing and I have built for our research is the perfect tool to determine how much imagination is actually existing within the wall of the pavilion on average every day, month and year. It works as a sort of motion sensor for oncoming individuals while also scanning the level of neuron brainwaves that are acting and reacting inside the human brain when they come in. Imagine the levels that keep rising up the more or less people come in or go. I’ve yet to understand what interesting pathways these visual ideals may be opening up for Dr. Channing and myself. I can’t help but feel that what we’re about to learn in all this will only be just the beginning of what we might be up against.

***

October 20, 1994.

7:09 PM - I’m writing this as I’m going on. The thunderstorm outside has caused a power outage, so I’m reduced to use one of our emergency flashlights. It’s around 7 o’clock in the evening and I’ve just heard a loud crash coming from the Dreamport section of Dream LIVE!. It might either be spies lurking around to steal information from our research or perhaps some guests who have been locked inside by accident. I’m going to check it out.

7:23 PM - I’ve just bumped into Nigel at the Rainbow Tunnel and we have now just entered the School of Drama together in search of the noise. He had only just heard of the noise as he was coming out from the Science Room and decided to investigate himself until I showed up. I’ve decided for us to split up and search everywhere in the pavilion to cover more ground. The suspense is getting worse and worse, but I will maintain to keep my feet on the ground sturdy until we find out the problem.

8:08 PM - Forty-five minutes have gone by since Dr. Channing and I have split up and there is still no sign of our intruder. It might have been just a palm branch being ripped off by the wind from one of the palm trees outside falling against the glass of the building. Thanks goodness the glass is reinforced and weather sustainable. I’m in the Sweet Treats Room and I have…I just heard another loud crash. It’s coming from Science Fiction Room! I’ll have to run over there to see what it is.

8:21 PM - It’s unbelievable! I’ve just discovered a real live corporeal entity of artistry in the form of a sprite; A REAL SPARK OF IMAGINATION!!! At least, I believe it is. It could be a fairy, maybe. I’ve realized the damages it has made. It seems that the thunder outside kept blowing up so much it must have scared the poor thing into destroying some of the props and hiding behind them. I’ve managed to calm it down for now, but I’ve become far too excited to contain it inside. I’m about to take this little guy to the lab and look deeper into this.

11:42 PM - It’s much later than when I last wrote. I became so absorbed by this new fascinating find. Dr. Channing has already joined up with me in the lab and he, too, has become shocked at the finding of this creature. I have him trying to communicate with it right now. He’s trying to use sign language and charades, but they only seems to be amusing it. I’ve checked through the records of the last sightings of these beings. It turns out that the last time that one of these little sparks has been last seen just as granduncle Dreamfinder had used his imagination to reenter London and defeat the Articulate Army when he disappeared again for good. I can’t make of what these creatures are actually made of, but to find one up close and personal after nearly 85 years of hiding is just incredible! A chance of a lifetime! A once in a blue moon moment! And I already have so many plans to further our studies to connect these little sparks to our research. It’s changed the entire course of our mission for the very best. I sure wish the real Dreamfinder and Figment were here. What they’d GIVE to see this!

***

October 26, 1994.

I’ve learned quite a bit of these little sparks are about since they’ve appeared. They seem to be very selective to who they want to communicate with, as in choosing who to actually share and exchange their language. It might have something to do with whom these beings are being created by. We’ve been seeing a few more of the little sparks appearing out of the blue during the past week. The more we saw them, the more we’ve noticed that everywhere they go they keep leaving a trail of pink glittery dust puffing up into the atmosphere and making our other inventions and working props work TWICE as efficient as before. This must be what my granduncle has been referring to this as dream power. I’ve kept myself busy looking through my granduncle’s notes the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus lent me of the Mesmonic Converter he invented in 1910, the same invention he used to create Figment and start his first journey into imagination. That thing, remarkable as it looks, is a dinosaur of machines! But after reviewing the blueprints over and over again, I realized that it was really the helmet that powers the brainwaves to make material objects appear while the larger contraption is what gave the helmet an extra amount of necessary power for it to work. To makes things easier for me, I reconfigured the Imaginometer as a storage facility to store all the dream power it can collect from the sparks. Meanwhile, Dr. Channing and I have been reconstructing the helmet exactly as how Uncle Dreamfinder had built it along with a few modern modifications to keep it up to date. On the offhand, the multiple sparks that kept appearing have been keeping me company throughout my free leisure moments. I’ve found out a couple of things of what they’ve been saying. Something about their Mama. I’m not sure who or what that is, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure that out sooner or later.”

********************************************************************************************************

“Skip towards the end, Dreamfinder!” Figment yells. “I want to see what happens then!”

“Very well.” said Dreamfinder, repeatedly flipping forward through the pages. “Maybe we’ll find out more about what happened to him.”

********************************************************************************************************

August 6, 2001.

The Imagination Pavilion I had known before has long gone. To review, the first version has closed down and the Image Works and Dream LIVE! have been closed off from the public due to our sponsors, the Kodak Company, having a really bad financial problem. Much of the staff working at the attraction has been reduced and Dr. Channing and I have been left alone in this empty building. The title of the attraction has been renamed to “Journey Into YOUR Imagination." In this version, my granduncle and Figment have both been taken out and Dr. Channing was given the chance to debut as his own character. I admire the opportunity Nigel has been given for this recognition, but I find it shameful for Disney to have re-themed the attraction without reapplying my granduncle back in it since it WAS dedicated to him in the first place. But that’s all in the past now, unfortunately. It’s been almost three years since it happened already and I’m still complaining about it, though I really shouldn’t.

I’ve finally completed in building my very own Mesmonic Converter, just like my granduncle Dreamfinder’s helmet from long ago. I’ve made a couple tests already in imaging mental images becoming material and they have all been unanimously successful! And as a bonus, I’ve finally come to understand the language the sparks speak completely and I am now able to communicate with them verbally, mentally, and even in gestures ever so fluently. I also understand that these little sparks are each their own keepers to different realms, imaginary beings, and stories just waiting to be unlocked and revealed by every person in the world with all of their inspirations being the key. This I probably should have known. How else would granduncle Dreamfinder have been able to create Figment in the first place? The more I understood the little sparks, the quicker and easier the research was coming together. We’re close to finding the truth, I can feel it in every fiber and molecule of my being! If this keeps up, we may finally reveal the mystery of imagination and of my granduncle’s success!

I’m becoming very worried about Dr. Channing, however. He’s been acting very strange lately. I mean, more than usual. He’s taken to locking himself in his bedroom and the lab ranting and talking to no one in particular. At least, I don't think anyone has been here. Not since the attraction closed for refurbishment. He spends hours alone with the sparks muttering obsessively to himself and reviewing my granduncle’s notes when he thinks I’m not looking. And every time I’ve asked him to bring me one of the sparks for an experiment he keeps snatching them away and snaps at me quite rudely. I’ve always admired Nigel’s intelligence and have always taken his best interests at heart, but I’ve got a feeling that whatever he’s up to is not pretty. 

Today, however, is very different. For once in 3 years, we had a little visitor sneaking herself into the Imagination Pavilion while the building was boarded up for refurbishment. It’s a 6-year-old child name is Rachel. She is absolutely the cutest thing; so small and naturally classic in beauty and humor. She found one of our secret entrances within the original track of the ride before they were taken out and decided to jump “through the looking glass.” I don’t know how long she was in the lab, but when I found her with Dr. Channing I was almost horrified for her. A section of the room we were experimenting in was a complete mess. I assume Rachel must have caused it, but not intentionally. The poor thing was scared to death. I watched her cringing in one corner of the room while Nigel was yelling at her. I told Dr. Channing to kindly back off; he was being awfully hard on her thinking she did this on purpose. Knowing him, he’s always jumping to conclusions. I bring Rachel to the Health Aid Room where we keep our emergency healthcare supplies, using the power of my own imagination to transport us there and much to Rachel’s surprise, the dear thing started asking me so many questions. The sparks suddenly took an instant liking to her. She said that it was the sparks who attracted her to them and guided her into the lab. This the first time I’ve actually witnessed them calling her their Mama. Up until now, I’ve never heard them call them that to anyone else, provided that they hardly shown themselves to anyone else other than Nigel and myself. And if that isn’t enough, I saw how incredibly fluent both Rachel and the sparks interact to each other, as if they have known each other so long before or perhaps they are both part of the same species! I now know that this girl is very, very special. It may be too early for me to say this, but I feel that there is so much more of something about her that is anything but human. Her being inhuman, I mean, but not in meanest way. I asked Rachel if she would like to visit us more and her response was pleasantly ecstatic. It’s been a long while since we had any visitors. To have more of Rachel’s company and the ability to study her with the sparks, I pray, will prove very useful for this project. Maybe even better.

***

August 14, 2001.

Since Rachel first showed up, the research for studying imagination has improved tenfold than before! But more than that, I feel a more personal improvement onto myself. Up until Rachel came along, I’ve been feeling the dark enclosures and empty halls of the pavilion closing in on me. In all the years as an actor playing granduncle Dreamfinder and playing doctor in our analysis, I’m sure that the whole world has been going on ahead without me like I am now losing sight of what's happening to our reality. But with Rachel, the fancies I once had, them being the basis of my eagerness to explore imagination and follow in my granduncle’s footsteps, have suddenly returned to me. The child is an extreme joy to have around. I love having her here! In the process of my research, we’ve played and indulged so many games and things that I myself have once done as a child that I wish I still do; playing tea parties, dressing up, telling stories, and placing ourselves in the shoes of heroes fighting for justice to make everything right. My favorite is where I’d lift her onto the passenger seat of the unicorn on our own carousel from Dream LIVE! and watch her smile and laugh as the unicorn would ride off with her on its own while I’d follow. Much like Mary Poppins! I’ve watched her making friends with the other imaginative folk in the lab. Ms. Rose has been very kind to her like a second mother. The Mask Twins have helped Rachel learn to feel and how to express it through acting. The inhabitants of Rachel’s creations in the Art Department have substituted me and my presence along with the sparks in playing with her while I was busy elsewhere. Everyone in the laboratory has been very kind and attentive to the child in more ways than one, much of which I am unable to comprehend why. In all of this, I’ve been watching Rachel blossom. She’s told me of how her father has always been abusive to her, hence the main reason why she wouldn’t want to leave the pavilion. At first, I thought she was exaggerating just a smidge, but then I remembered on the way back into the building one day I watched Rachel and her father having a bit of a...rampant altercation just outside. I wanted to stand up for her, but my contract strictly enforced me to be completely discreet. I’m not supposed to reveal myself to anyone outside of work until my research was complete. I feel like I’m in house arrest.

The child has become very dear to me. It’s a wonder how her parents treat her this way. Being with Rachel lately has given me the option of actually wanting to become a father and have a child of my own. If Rachel were my daughter, I’d be living on in eternal bliss. And quite interestingly, the longer I have been with her throughout the past week and a half, the more I came to understand what she truly is. I’m dying to tell her, but I know that what lies in store for her later in life she must discover for herself. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t help. The other night, when it was time for Rachel to return to her family in her awakened state, as I tucked her into the bed I made special for her safe dreamy travels, I presented her a gift; a token of our friendship: a magic handheld mirror colored in blue that will give Rachel full access to communicate with me and grant her any wish she desires. Whatever she wants will be hers in an instant. I told that if she would watch carefully and listen closely with her imagination, anything is possible! A bit cliché, yes, but it works. Lastly, I asked her if she would consider becoming my apprentice for our research and so forth. She happily accepted. One can only imagine the excitement she had in her that time. It sure made me happy as a clam. I want to make Rachel the happiest child in the world. Dr. Channing, however, I realized has apparently taken offense in my decision to hire a child, believing that I care much more about what she thinks than him. That most certainly isn't true, but whatever I tell him is like I'm trying to talk to a brick wall. I don't know what to do with him.

8:36 PM- Rachel dreamed herself back to me in the Pavilion tonight at the worst of times. I just had an argument with Nigel. He was upset that I was spending all of my time with Rachel instead of our project and how he considered all of these leisure moments with her completely full of nonsense. But not as much as when I told him that I intend on shutting down the project. Nigel was incredibly upset to hear it, REAL upset! It was the worst I’ve ever seen him. I tried to feel the same way, but I still can’t understand how this is affecting way more strongly than it should. I gave him my reasons, how what he intends to do will likely put in a great effect for the worst on Rachel if we don’t stop it, but Nigel would not listen to reason. He said something about how our research being very beneficial for him personally and how he would be a much better lead in it than I am. Nigel suddenly grabbed me by the collar and lifted me to the air and against the wall, threatening me to pursue the project as usual or else. It’s become very clear that all this work has made his mind snap like a twig. Subconsciously, I threatened back to fire him on the spot if he didn’t let me go, but he wouldn’t. I jerked myself off from his grip and smacked him by the jaw. Then Nigel stormed out of the room fuming with rage! And the worst is that I noticed Rachel watching the whole thing happen. If there was a mechanism I could build that could take away such a horrible memory, I’d be ridding her of this one. As for Nigel, I fear that whatever he’s thinking of doing, it’s going to be extraordinarily ugly. I need to keep my guard up from now on. More importantly, I need to protect Rachel and the sparks from Dr. Channing now and prevent them from getting involved in this situation.

***

August 17, 2001.

Nebulus! Nebulus! Somebody help me! He ate the sparks! Channing's betrayed me! Dreamfinder’s in danger! Hide the book! Hide everything! Prote—”

********************************************************************************************************

Dreamfinder’s eyes widen at the urgent message in Uncle Eli’s last entry in the book. The last words started off with a “P-r-o-t-e” arrangement with an accelerated hand, but there is a sudden flourish that seems to have been abruptly pulled straight through the rest of this empty page. A small splatter of ink from Eli’s pen is scattered and has bled through the early-written and latter empty pages. The last page is slightly crippled, perhaps even torn by an inch or two. The sparks floating around them begin to tremble at the greatest of uneasiness. They crowd up behind Rachel for protection and reassurance. Whatever’s interrupted Eli writing this entry, it’s big!

“Oh my word!” Dreamfinder gasps.

“Hey! What happened?” Figment asks to his confusion. “Where’s the rest of the page?”

“It seem Elias was not able to complete his message. He must have been abruptly pulled away to this danger while he was writing it. And he wanted to relay this message to anyone outside when he thought he had the chance. This must have happened when Nebulus first came in and attacked him with Dr. Channing at his side. That traitor!”

“Oh, those poor little sparks…”

“And that was when everything else happened in the security footages we saw back at the academy. And the girl in it…she saw the whole thing…she ran…that girl is…” Dreamfinder gasps in horror to his realization as his hands begin to tremble with the book. He finally understood that the girl in the security footage along with the child in the portrait with Eli Finder bears an incredible resemblance to… “Rachel…you? You’re the girl! You saw this all happen!”

“…Yes.” Rachel mutters quietly, hardly realizing a small tear escaping her eyes. “Yes, I saw everything. And right in front of me, I saw it all end…along with the childhood I was promised. And now you see that due to all of these circumstances, there is nothing I can do, nothing we can do, to save him. Not anymore.”

“BAH! I don’t believe it!”

“Me neither!” shouted Figment.

“Face it, guys! It was over before we started! We lost the battle before we even had the chance to take it into our own hands. Eli is gone! END OF STORY!”

“NO!” Dreamfinder shouts. “There IS a way! There’s always a way!”

“Yeah!” said Figment in support for Dreamfinder. “Perhaps Nebulus was looking for something and Eli just simply got in the way of it. If we can just figure out what it is and give to him, then maybe—”

“Idiots! IDIOTS!” Rachel screams. “DON’T YOU GET IT?! WHAT HE’S AFTER IS YOU! BOTH OF YOU! Nebulus is after you!”

“What?” Dreamfinder exclaims to his surprise. “Why?”

“I don’t know! But whatever it is, I doubt that it can’t be much worse than what’s happened to Uncle Eli. You’ve already put yourselves in great danger just by coming to the twenty-first century and getting everybody’s hopes up with your imaginative philosophic-mumbo-jumbo. Heck, you shouldn’t have followed me and found this place to begin with. You shouldn’t have found me PERIOD! I tried so hard not to have you notice me when we first met back at the expo, but no-o-o-o-o! You just HAD pull me up onstage, didn’t you? And for WHAT? So you’d promote yourselves in getting everybody involved in your air headed-hippie crap? So long as you two are here, which probably doesn’t matter anymore considering how now Nebulus can probably reach you just about ANYWHERE in this goddamn existence, you’re in great danger! Why else do you think I came along with you in first place?”

“Because of your dad?” Figment plainly replies.

“That’s half." said Rachel in a calmer tone, ready to cry, "I…I never really believed much in time travel, but suppose it was possible, suppose you two actually did come to this time period somehow, I vowed to make sure you two would not face the same fate as Uncle Eli did. That’s why I didn’t want you to go into the Academy Scientifica-Lucidus. And that’s why I tried to prevent you from finding this place. I just…Dreamfinder, I…I just didn’t want to lose you again…not again.”

“Oh, Rachel.” Dreamfinder whispers in his breath. Giving the book to Figment, he cups Rachel’s teary face in his hands and softly presses a kiss on her forehead. Rachel, with surprised widened eyes looking down to the ground out of Dreamfinder’s kind gesture, sputters uncontrollably. Her teeth clench tight. She doesn’t deserve that kiss, she thought. But Dreamfinder begs much to differ. “It’s okay,” said Dreamfinder with his kind, teary ocean-blue eyes looking down to her in sympathy. “It’s okay...”

“No…” Rachel sobs. “No, it’s not. I lied to you. I lied to you both. I lied—”

“You lied to protect us!” said Figment. “Well, tried, really. But you did it to save us from a fate that's been waiting to happen!”

“Yes, indeed, Rachel!” said Dreamfinder with a smile of gratitude. “And even though what you’ve expected to happen to us hasn’t happened, yet or never, we really owe you a great debt. Truly!”

“Thanks guys…really.” Rachel mutters, trying to put up the effort to smile just a smidge if she could. “But still, all this gratitude is not going to get Eli back. And even if it does help, I wouldn’t even know where to begin! What would be the point anyway? All it’s ever going to do is attract Nebulus to find me again, capture you, and destroy everything in his path to do it. It’s probably better off that I should never have an imagination at all...not for the rest of my life.”

Dreamfinder, realizing what Rachel had said, had just remembered what he was just thinking about earlier. He looks at Figment for a brief moment, then to the sparks, and finally back down to Rachel’s head as she leans towards his chest. The sparks hover closer down to Rachel’s shoulder length murmuring into her ears, calling her their Mama in their loving tender voices. A couple of them start caressing her cheeks like they are kissing her. The girl takes three of the little sparks in her arms, holding them firmly but very lovingly. They succeed in making her put up a full smile on her face to fight off the bittersweet tears that fall down. What Dreamfinder is thinking of, this scene right here has proven his point.

“Rachel,” Dreamfinder begins softly and then happily raising his tone to his discovery, “I believe these sparks ARE your imagination!”

“Didn't you just say that?” Rachel said. "What is it anyway?"

"That theory I've just came up with. This time for sure I've got it!"

“Of course!” Figment exclaims with excitement. “THAT’S why these sparks keep calling you their mother! It’s because they’re all remnants of your imagination as a whole and they’ve just scattered to hide when Nebulus came in and attacked.”

“Exactly, Figment!” Dreamfinder confirms. “And by the you had left after Nebulus let you go, the sparks have been remaining here waiting for you to come back for fifteen years! And now, they’re just dying to have you call them back and return what’s rightfully yours, just as what rightfully belongs to everyone else in the world: your imagination!”

“My…my imagination?” Rachel said with shock. “These guys?”

“Yes!” they said together.

Seeing if this is true, Rachel takes another glance at her sparks. Within their auras, she immediately sees a small projection of each of her fondest childhood memories and earlier fancies from her mind. There is so much in them that she had forgotten all this time since Eli’s kidnapping. She reaches out a hand towards one of the sparks, fondling its glow between her fingers very tenderly. That was the moment where Rachel finally understood what they really are to her. Something she’s lost for a long time; something that she’s wanted back so badly after all these years. Her imagination!

“Mama!” the sparks chirps. “Mama! Mama! My Mama!”

“My…my sparks!” Rachel whispers loudly. “My sparks of inspiration! My imagination! It’s all here! It's all here right in front of me and I never even realized it from the beginning!”

“That’s right, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder with a smirk as he holds the Mesmonic Converter in his hands. “And I believe you can bring them all back safely into your mind with this.”

But suddenly, as Dreamfinder hands the helmet to Rachel, a loud roaring sound, followed by a heavy rumbling on the ground, echoes throughout the halls of the pavilion reaching to all of Dreamfinder, Figment, Rachel and the sparks and throwing them off into a state of panic and shock. A stray spark rushes into the room out of nowhere frantically. It sputters aloud, its colors change into an alarmingly bright red, and the aura around it is spiked sharp as it tears into the atmosphere.

“What was that?!” Figment cries.

“MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!” the frightened spark shrieks. “MAMAAAA!!!”

“No…!” Rachel gasps to her horror.

Rachel rushes off out of the room with the Mesmonic Converter in hand. The Dreamfinder and Figment follow behind her with the sparks coming up last. They turn sharply at every corner of every hallway the roaring echo is filling. Their heartbeats accelerate, their minds are sweating to the maximum, their breaths drying with their quickened paces of speed, and all of their muscles save for the sparks since they have no limbs, all tremble with fear. The closer the got to the source, the more frightened they all became.

They enter the foyer where the roars are coming from and right in front of them is a horror beyond belief! A large manifestation appears in front of our heroes. Its body is made of a giant glob of pitch black with no seams as if there are no lines and appears to be darker than the darkest shade of black. Its glowing green eyes fold in an angered position, which half-underlies the expression of an evil grin showing its pearly-white teeth in intimidation. It’s claws are enormous, enough to hold at least two catches of fish at once without a fishing net.

The three friends, along with the sparks of imagination, are frozen on the spot with the most intense of fears at the sight of this beast. It looks down on them all, filled with amusement at the puny sizes of its opponents. Of all things to come about in all places, it has to be the one being Rachel has deeply feared in the place where her fondest memories had all died in one swoop.

“I…remember…you!” the monster spoke aloud to the group, primarily at Rachel. It chuckles with pleasure at the sound of Rachel’s gasps of horror.

“Nebulus…!”


	41. Chapter 41

The eyes of evil that are staring down on all three of our heroes and the small frightened group of sparks lock tight with the assuring promise of a feast of fear for its appetition. The sight of this horrifically demonic beast that spans to the height and width of at least two or three Dream Machines combined strikes terror in their hearts in viewing the towering abomination this creature is. This creature in particular is a beast both Dreamfinder and Figment know all too well; one that they had both faced and defeated once before. Up until now, there has never been any sign of recurrence of this creature’s return…or worse yet, another source. 

“My Gosh! Another nightmare!” Dreamfinder yells.

“Just like the Doubtfinder back at the academy!” said Figment. “Only scarier!”

“Good observation.” the nightmare says with an evil grin. “You seem to know about the kind of being I am. I take it that one of you has been infected with my ‘fearful epidemic’ before. But hold, what is this I see about you? You look like someone or some people I had once seen before. …Yes…yes! I remember you! I had captured you once before as I had laid waste to this pitiful realm of a mansion. But…how are you here? How could you have escaped my wrath…Elias Dean Finder?”

“Because I am not who you think I am.” bravely said Dreamfinder. “I am not my great-grandnephew Elias, but his granduncle. I am Dreamfinder! My purple flying friend here is Figment and this young woman is—”

“Ixnay on my e-namay, Dreamfinder.” said Rachel through her teeth in fear with her eyes open wide. “He doesn’t need to know who I am, too.”

“You? Yes…I remember you!” the nightmare says, as it watches Rachel make a large gulp. The monster pushes Dreamfinder and Figment aside and carefully runs a claw, tracing and framing Rachel’s face as she lands her back completely against the nearest wall with the sparks trembling at her side. “I remember how small you once were, how naïve you were, how weak and helpless you were, how deliciously fresh you were with fear. It seems you are still ripe for the picking.” 

“You leave her alone!” Figment cries. He furiously flaps his wings flying straight to the monster like a bullet only to be whacked and swatted away like bug, landing right against Dreamfinder’s torso and knocking them both to the ground.

“And look!” the nightmare continues with its eyes fixed at the sparks. “You have more little sparks of imagination for me to feed on. How courteous of you bring me some. Which one should I consume first?”

“Mama…Mama!” cried the poor little sparks in their trembling.

“NO!” Rachel screams. “I WON’T LET YOU TAKE THEM FROM ME AGAIN!”

“Is that so? I seem to recall the last time we had met when I had warned you to stay out of my way and never dream again…or I would claim you into my grasp of darkness as I had done for your friend.”

“You can’t take away her dreams!” Dreamfinder shouts. “Rachel! Your fantasies are what make you whole! They helped you get this far! You mustn’t let the nightmares overwhelm you again!” But saying this has only gotten Dreamfinder to be whacked away like Figment has, knocking his down to his rump.

“What’s it going to be, child? Are you going to surrender yourself and your sparks to me? Or am I going to take you by force?”

Rachel didn’t have time to think. She has become far too terrified beyond capacity for rational thought. She kicks against the monster’s teeth real hard, giving her and the sparks enough room to flee from being cornered, grab Dreamfinder and Figment to their feet, and scatter into one of the halls and escape.

“So this is how you want to play it, eh?” said the monster with devilish glee, ready to gallop after them. “Very well then. Ready or not, here I come!”

********************************************************************************************************

The group of two humans, the one dragon and tiny clan of sparks race through the empty halls in a frenzy. Their hearts are beating and pulsing in a terrifyingly terrific speed. The sound of their feet stomping tremendously as they swiftly sprint throughout the abandoned mansion of a laboratory are giving vigorous echoes as they go on, making themselves more than likely to get caught at any second. 

With the beast chasing behind them unseen, there is no telling when, where or how it will spring out of the blue and catch its prey. The beast pants heavily with an eager taste for both fallen dreams and blood. Its large size along with the four legs it has formed has given it the advantage to top our heroes’ speed, but doesn’t seem to helping it much as it tries to fit through the apparent small corridors it attempts to reach. In all of this, it has turned into a cat-and-mouse chase.

Rachel spots Elias’ office just ahead. They enter another large, circular, foyer-like room with the office just on the other side. Without hesitation, everyone rushes through the room to get inside without the monster seeing them. Once inside, Dreamfinder slams the door behind them and locks it shut. There is a peeking hole on the door to look through for any visitors, or in this case any monsters or other intruders barging in, to which the Dreamfinder manages to open just a small crack and peek out. Meanwhile, everyone else is out of breath. To have all of the fear and terror inside exerting out of them while running is a tiresome task. Their sweat falls off of their faces and their panting tries to breath in and out as quietly as possible. Rachel, being the first to catch her breath, she grabs Figment instantly by the neck and Dreamfinder by his collar. She slams them both against the wall away from the door growling and seething with rage inside, though under the circumstances they are in, she tries to keep in as much balance as possible.

“You ignored the note on the steel door, didn’t you?” Rachel growls.

“Uh…note?” Figment stutters in a little lie, scratching the back of his head. “What note? You mean like a musical note?”

“I told him not to open it!” Dreamfinder admits.

“YOU IDIOTS!” Rachel explodes. “What part of ‘Must Never Open’ don’t you understand?! That door has contained the beast inside it since Uncle Eli was taken. I wrote that note and stuck it to the door and closed it during my escape so no one would open it again. If that door is open, then Nebulus won’t stop until he captures you two, captures the sparks, captures me, and then let history repeat itself!”

“Then we just have to prevent that from happening again.” said Dreamfinder, as he frees himself from Rachel’s grip. “Perhaps if we can get Nebulus back into that door, we can close it shut and he’ll be sealed in again.”

“It’s not that simple. In all of the fifteen years he’s spent behind that door, and who knows how long he has been in there beforehand, he’s bound to have become too smart to be outwitted. We don’t even have a prayer to save us.”

“Maybe not,” Figment intervenes, “but we do have our imaginations! If anything can get us out of this mess like the last many moments we’ve faced, imagination can.”

“Figment is right, Rachel.” said Dreamfinder in support. “We can’t just stay in here and hide like mice while that thing is rampaging around the laboratory. When he’s done here and when he’s done devouring these little sparks, which we won’t allow if we have anything to say about it, he’ll find his way out of the pavilion and go after everyone else. Every dreamer in the world is at stake!”

“Figure that out on your own, genius?” said Rachel with sarcasm.

“Alright, fine!” Dreamfinder says with little patience in his tone. “Since you know so much about what’s going on, what say you come up with an idea on how to defeat it. Go on! Put your ideas together! You can do it! We’re all ears!”

Seeing the stern look on Dreamfinder’s face and the scared looks on both Figment and the sparks’, there is not much Rachel can say about what to do, granted that this isn’t the time. Rachel looks down tentatively where in her hands is Uncle Eli’s Mesmonic Converter. It’s a wonder why the nightmare monster didn’t just swipe this thing out of her hands when it cornered her and the sparks to the walls. It probably meant to, but just didn’t have the chance after Rachel kicked it away from her. She looks back at the sparks as they all quiver in fear hiding in the drawers, under the desk table and whatever hiding place there is left murmuring and crying “Mama…Mama…Mama…” Her head tilts back and forth from the sparks to the Mesmonic Converter and back. And then, in realizing what Dreamfinder has advised Rachel to do, her mind clicks.

“ ‘…Put your ideas together…’” Rachel mutters in her realization. “Dreamfinder, you said you created Figment with the Mesmonic Converter a long time ago, right?”

“Yes?” Dreamfinder drawly replies. “And I’m happy that I have.”

“And you said that it requires me to use my imagination and that dream power alone can charge this thing and bring my fantasies to life, right? Mind into matter?”

“With enough concentration and a clear mind, yes. Why?”

“I have an idea, but I need room to make it work. Come on!”

Rachel races back out of Eli’s office with the Mesmonic Converter in hand. The sparks, never wanting to go or be anywhere without their mama, they all flee from their hiding spots after Rachel with only Dreamfinder and Figment, left in their confusion, following right behind them. They enter back into the large clearing with Rachel standing in the exact center of it. The sparks circle around her with their curiosity overwhelming them over their fear. What could Mama be up to, they thought. Most likely something crazy above all else, but anything else…who knows? With Rachel’s legs stretched apart in a shoulder position and raising the Mesmonic Converter up high, her plan is now being put into effect.

“This is for the good of all my little sparks.” said Rachel. “It’s time I put all of my ideas together.”

“What is she talking about?” whispered Figment to Dreamfinder without Rachel noticing.

“I think I know.” said Dreamfinder with realization in his eyes and excited smile. “And if I’m right, it’s brilliant!”

“The sparks…and the Mesmonic Converter. You don’t mean she’s…?”

“We’ll just have to see, my friend, and hope that it will work in time before the Doubt gets here.”

“Mama?” the sparks murmurs.

“Okay…” Rachel whispers to herself, taking a very deep breath. “If this doesn’t work, I’m gonna be real upset.” She slips the Mesmonic Converter on her head, turns the dials at the correct frequency; she starts to think to where the sparks on the coils at the top of the helmet are flickering, and starts to recite.

 

Watch carefully. Listen closely. See what you can see…

 

“Uh…Rachel?” Figment stutters. “You might want to do this faster. I can hear and feel the Nebulus getting closer!”

In an instant, the little sparks start to glow brightly in connection to Rachel’s words and the sparks from the Mesmonic converter helmet. The sparks are beginning to morph together. In the process of all of this, a gust of dust, leaves and whatever bit of rubbish that has fallen and rotten over the years are blowing into a spiral along with Dreamfinder’s top hat flying off from his head. The sparks are being infused with the electric shock the helmet is making. As each of those sparks go by, so do all of the visions of Rachel’s memories with Uncle Eli, the happiest moments of her childhood before they had been forgotten, along with whatever bittersweet, yet joyful tears escape from her eyes. All from the time she had first met Uncle Eli, from playing their games and conjuring everything they think of coming to life, to the long nights of sleeping a blissful dreamland that Eli had lulled her to in her sleep, all of which have been brought together and put into one place, altering them into one lonely being. She finishes her incantation to complete the process.

“Hurry, Rachel!” Dreamfinder shouts. “It’s almost here!”

 

Through the power of words and the magic in my mind, I make these sparks to be whatever I want them to be!

 

With the sparks and the electric shock converting together at the end of Rachel’s enchantment are at the end of their mutation, they begin to form a specific shape. A pair of wings, long and strong as an eagle’s, opens wide and high. A bean-curving body with four legs, but two of each in both frontal and hind two different kinds; the front resembling a bird’s talon claws, while the back more like paws from some other kind of species. A lion’s tail flourishes in the air from behind with a bird’s face and tough, stiffened beak at the front. Its eyes glow brightly like the shining light of the heavens. And lastly, its ears sprout out both sides of its head pointing skyward. With the finishing touches in place of the shock and the glowing light, the small creature inside it cries out a screeching roar much similar to eagle’s as well. Its screeching echoes throughout the rest of the Imagination Pavilion, enough to even reach outside of the building and throughout the Epcot park! The transformation is complete!

The light that has illuminated the room has begun to cease. The being is now revealed as a creature far beyond everyone’s expectations, much except for Rachel’s for the sparks have turned into exactly what she had desired. The creature is small, about three and a half feet from beak to tail; sort of like Figment’s height. Its fur is a light tan with its feathers behind it mostly white at the tips. Its beak and talons are a golden yellow like the Sun, radiating from the light it has made. And lastly, as it opens its eyes, its irises reveal its true color of emerald green, gleaming brighter and clearer than even the most valuable and most transparent of diamonds and gems. The creature is slowly lowering down to the ground in its rebirth. It yawns and stretches and shakes itself like a dog, rubs its eyes, then picks with its beak into its fur like it is looking for fleas. Much more than it had ever been as a small group of little sparks the little creature, or most likely a Gryphon, is alive!

“It worked!” Figment exclaims. “Right?”

“Oh...my…” Dreamfinder mutters to his delighted shock.

“Algar?” Rachel weakly calls.

“Hmm?” the newly imagined figment of a gryphon, whose name is revealed as Algar, perks up his ears and tilts his head towards Rachel’s direction. At first, the little gryphon cannot tell who is wearing that helmet.

Rachel lifts the Mesmonic Converter off of her head, revealing her face to Algar. Despite the loud thumps and stomps of Nebulus about to enter to large cluttered room, the gryphon looks straight into Rachel’s eyes, locked without moving them anywhere else. Rachel, with her eyes teary with great joy of her creations presence and smiling weakly but definitely showing an influential reaction, stumbles towards Algar in small steps just like a child with her arms spreading out. The gryphon does the same. In his struggle to walk or even fly for the first time in its life, he tries to move closer and closer to his new creator, trying to get a closer look at her.

“It’s me, Rachel.” Rachel whispers aloud, crying with joy in her heart for once in her life. “You know, your mama. I made you this way to save you and you’re here. You’re finally here!”

The Dreamfinder and Figment, completely and immensely astonished at this sight with their jaws dropped and eyes widened, both stand there together motionless. A new discovery in making imagination come to life has been sought and as much there is to describe what and how it happened, they can’t.

Algar’s eyes grow bigger at the sound of Rachel’s words. At first, they sound like flushing water blurring his hearing, but as he trudges closer and violently shakes his head a bit, it starts to come out more clearly. Once Rachel and Algar get close enough to each other with Rachel kneeling down to her little gryphon, she slowly lets out her hand to pet him. He sees her hand trembling not out of fear, but out of great anticipation. The gryphon slowly moves towards Rachel’s hand, sniffing it with his sense of smell for the first time. That is a very familiar scent. In recognizing whose scent it belongs to, Algar looks up to Rachel with his eyes expanded in his amazement. Then the gryphon smiles at her. The biggest and first smile he has ever made. It knows who Rachel is now and I his excitement, the gryphon barks happily like a little puppy and jumps into his creator’s arms, kissing her cheek with large licks and making her laugh in the process.

“Bark bark!” Algar exclaims.

“ALGAR!” Rachel cries joyously.

“Algar?” Dreamfinder and Figment blurts out in their confusion.

“Figment, Dreamfinder, this is Algar.” said Rachel in a gracious tone as she walks to her friends with Algar in her arms. “My imaginary friend!”

“Wowie-wow-wow! That’s incredible!” cheered Figment to his amazement. "Hello, Algar! Welcome to the world!"

“A gryphon!” Dreamfinder proclaims with excitement. “How delightful!”

“How delightful, indeed!”

In their shock, they see Nebulus slowly trekking into room chuckling at the “pitiful sight,” in its own way of seeing it. He crawls towards our four heroes heavily like a hungry animal with his grinning mouth growing as big as Figment’s known size. Maybe even bigger! Seeing Nebulus for the first time in his rebirth, Algar screeches with fear and tries to hide behind Rachel’s back, whimpering. It seems to have the same feeling of fear as he did when he was that small group of tiny sparks. Dreamfinder stands himself at the very front of his friends in protection, as would any brave man would. Figment hides behind Dreamfinder’s shoulders, leaving both Rachel and Algar right behind them away from the danger, which doesn’t seem to help much. But this is only amusing Nebulus even more as he gets closer to them.

“And cute all the same.” Nebulus adds. “Do you really think that changing those sparks into this pitiful little bird beast will save him from me? Why, it only raises my appetite to eat its essence even more! The way you have managed to gather them all, turning them and making them grow into one body, has saved me all the trouble of hunting them all down. I ought to thank you for your service in changing my luck around.”

“I won’t let you take Algar away from me!” Rachel shouts.

“Oh, don’t you fret, my dear. He will not be alone. Once I devour your little friend, I’ll be coming after you to feed on your fear next. And once I finish dealing with you, the rest of your friends will finally become my prisoners for eternity doing my bidding! Soon I will take the Dreamfinder’s power, make it mine, and use it for the whole world to fall prey to my endless hunger and thirst for fear! I could do all of this in a matter of minutes without any effort whatsoever! Would you like that?”

“No!”

“Nor would I. I would rather much deal with you first myself, little child. But since I’m in a good mood and have such an interest in games, I’m going to give you a head start. I count to ten, you run, I catch you, and then I will devour every fiber of your being to your last breath and the last piece of your physical being. Starting now. 1…2…3…”

Despite how frightened, stiff and cold her blood and body is becoming, Rachel suddenly hands Algar to Dreamfinder and Figment and makes a run for it, hearing the shrieking cries of her friends in their fear of losing her.

“4…5…6…7…”

That incredible of sensation of freedom and blissful dreaming that Rachel had just had has been instantaneously wiped out. Her heart is pounding, her breaths exerting from her mouth making her throat become cold and dried up, her muscles are beginning to give out even though she had only just started to run, and the air that is speeding right into her eyes forming the very worst of tears she has ever shed stings them and blurs her vision. She cries aloud, wishing that she hadn’t. It would only catch more of Nebulus’ attention and provide her the disadvantage of him catching her.

“...8-9-10! NOW!” Nebulus shouts out.

He starts pursuing his chase to capture Rachel. His legs morph back into his pitch-black body into the form of a ghostlike being shooting through the halls like a bullet piercing through the air as if it were cutting through a piece of reality fabric. He leaves Dreamfinder, Figment and Algar behind for now, letting them watch the chase start in horror in a now deathly silent room and hearing the halls echo with Rachel’s screams.

“We’ve got to do something!” Figment exclaims frightfully.

“Indeed!” said Dreamfinder with Algar now in his arms. “Rachel is in danger and she’s counting on us to help her. We’ve got to get that thing away from her somehow. Wait a minute!”

“What?”

“What I’ve suggested earlier. Figment! That door you opened! The one where Nebulus came out! Do you remember where it is?”

“Yeah, I think so! We better get to it before they do! Let’s go!”

********************************************************************************************************

“Help!” Rachel screams.

Rachel races through the halls just as scared as she was fifteen years ago. It is almost as if nothing has changed in her. Though time has long passed, her fear of this kind of the supernatural remains the same. She passes by every room she once entered, not having the chance to glance at them, read their names, and remember what fond memories she had with Uncle Eli in them. From the start she knew what terrible things could happen if Rachel stayed there, but what she thought was nothing compared to this phenomenon.

She can hear Nebulus rushing behind her with his huge shadow nearly towering over her and consuming her. Before Nebulus had been given the chance to peer his glowing green eyes in sight of Rachel’s whereabouts, Rachel slips through a window of broken wooden wall, deteriorating from the years of exposure to bugs and rot. She spots a closet ahead of her and quickly hides inside it. The closet, surprisingly in mint condition, is dark inside. Hopefully, it’s enough for Nebulus not to be able to see her once he comes in. Rachel grabs her sapphire necklace and, in her distraught, speaks quickly and quietly for Yuna to come out.

“Yuna…Yuna!” Rachel shouts in whisper. “Help!”

“Rachel?” said Yuna from the necklace as the gem faintly glows under Rachel’s clothes. “Are you okay?”

“What does it look like? I’m being chased to my death here by a demon beyond proportion!” 

“Sounds like this person doesn’t like you at all.”

“DOI! Yuna, if you’ve got any ideas as to how to get me—get us out of here, now’s the perfect time to tell me.”

“Well, for one thing you need to get out of this closet first to defeat him.”

“…NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE STATING THE OBVIOUS HERE! Yuna, seriously! I’m really scared here! I don’t want to die! Not like this!”

“Okay, calm down, sweetheart. It’s going to be alright. What do you know about this creature?”

“That it’s Nebulus! That he was sealed behind the one door Uncle Eli had forbade me to open, WHICH I DID ANYWAY AND SCREWED MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS OVER! And then I—wait. The door! I’ve got get him back through that door again and close it! Even Dreamfinder said so. I’m such a stunod! Now all I need to worry about is getting there before he catches me.”

“Leave that to me, Rachel.” said Yuna with confidence. “Just set me down in front of you and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You’ll be careful, right?” Rachel nervously asks.

“I will. Now hush! He’s coming!”

And so he is. Nebulus is clawing his way through the rotten woodpile to get into the room. His devil smile is still intact, taking delight in his search. All of the wood he pulls and smashes through all fly ahead as he breaks through. Bits and pieces of them are scattered across the floor, which makes Rachel glad she is wearing shoes. When Nebulus finally enters his breaths are heavy, but light in his chuckles. His four legs grow back to how they were and plant back to the ground, building the suspense of his footsteps coming closer and closer to Rachel in the closet. The drool of his appetite dropping down from his jaws leaves a trail behind him. A single drop of it amounts up to at least six inches all around, enough to drench an entire hand! Nebulus’ eyes slowly search the room, but he seems content to a suspenseful patience. He knows Rachel was in here…or better yet…she is in here!

“I know you are in here, little girl.” Nebulus teases. “There is no use in hiding. I will find you! I can smell you. I can smell your fear rising and leaking from your body. I can smell your blood!”

Blood. That is a real eye-opener. At the sound of these words and the tone of Nebulus’ voice when he suspects Rachel near him, Rachel’s breaths are hastily exerting from her. Through a very tiny gap on one of the closet doors, Rachel’s eyes grow bigger and bigger at the sight of Nebulus’ grim grinning teeth approaching the closet. There is no escape this time. The monster is about to get her! Nebulus grasps both closet doors in each hand and swiftly opens them wide only to find that…Rachel has disappeared! All that remains in the closet is her sapphire necklace sitting alone on the floor of the closet.

Grinding his teeth in his anger, Nebulus grabs the necklace and throws it across the room, through a small hole of another woodpile by chance, and into the next hallway. As Nebulus smashes the closet to bits, he does not realize that the necklace begins to gradually glow brighter from inside the gem. Out of the necklace comes Rachel, rubbing her head it must have somehow hurt her, but didn’t. Along with her comes Yuna in her sprite form. She returns the necklace to Rachel and they both sprint off away from Nebulus in that room. 

“So that’s what it’s like to enter and stay in a gem.” Rachel exclaims quietly enough for Nebulus not to hear. “Nice work, Yuna! I’ll bet you knew you could pull anyone into gems like that, huh?”

“I didn’t.” said Yuna.

“Huh?!”

“I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.”

“You mean I could’ve…and he would’ve…?!” Taking a deep breath, Rachel continues saying, “Okay look. I’m going put to aside this death-defying escape trick for the time being. Right now, we’ve got to get to that steel door.”

“Do you remember where it is?” Yuna asks.

“In my sleep. Underwater, hands tied and upside down. Of course I know where it is! Hopefully Dreamfinder, Figment and Algar are safely away from here.”

“You think they would leave without you?”

“No, but I at least hope they are safe, period!”

“Let’s hope. The beast won’t be in there for much longer.”

“This way!”

Rachel, relieved to be alive but still in panic of Nebulus about to follow behind them again, leads Yuna through more of the abandoned hallways past the room where they had slept in last night and nearby the Science and Technology Room where they found the Mesmonic Converter. Rachel had quite forgotten that the helmet was still on her head. It was no wonder she was feeling a little heavy along the way. Up ahead of them are Dreamfinder, Figment and Algar already arriving at the opened steel door into the Bewilderness where the monster had come from. 

“Rachel!” Figment shouts happily.

“Rachel!” Dreamfinder exclaims, relieved to see Rachel still in one piece but not noticing Yuna returning inside her necklace. “Thank goodness you’re okay! Are you alright?”

“Bark bark!” Algar barks excitedly as it jumps back into Rachel’s arms.

“I’m fine.” said Rachel. “I just barely made it away from Nebulus getting here, but I doubt I’ve lost him for long. Oh God…” Rachel spots the steel door opened. Opened once again, haunting her memories with its blank but ever-changing swirls and movements of darkness swishing about like a pool or tar that no dinosaur was ever strong enough to escape. If a dinosaur could not escape, how can a human make any difference? “I had hoped I would never see this door opened again and have forgotten this past moment for as long as I live.” she said. “Now it’s happening all over again. It’s even more gruesome looking than I remember.”

“I’m really sorry, Rachel.” said Figment in his lament. “I really messed up big time!”

“Don’t be, Figment. You didn’t know. You wouldn’t have known if you both hadn’t come here. But we need to put that aside for now. This is the only door that leads into the Bewilderness from here. If we can get Nebulus inside it again, trick it somehow, we might be able to seal it again once and for all.”

“Was creating Algar part of your plan to defeat Nebulus?” Dreamfinder asks.

“Only in part.” said Rachel. “Unfortunately, I got too excited for that to work I didn’t get this far to think up the next part. We can always hire a lion tamer.”

“There aren’t any lion tamers here!” Figment shouts.

“I know. Depressing, isn’t it?”

“What if we disguise the door with some kind of façade,” Dreamfinder suggests, “get its attention and draw it close enough for it to get to without having the ability to make the next move and then seal him in.”

“And how do you suppose we disguise this door?” Rachel asks.

“Bark bark bark!” Algar jumps off from Rachel’s arms and struggles to skip towards this sheet. This large sheet that is three times to size of the door, dirtied, muddied and infected with the leftover dirt and grime and bug guts that have been laying about for so long, Algar tries to pull towards Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel, but can’t due to his newfound strength not yet working his favor. Still, it has roughly given everyone an idea of what must be done.

********************************************************************************************************

Nebulus barges into the room where he had been sniffing out for Rachel obsessively like a hungry dog, waiting to lick a taste of her fear and blood once he catches her. His huge body crawls from corner to corner, gathering every inch of her scent into his senses prompting his appetite to plead and beg more and more to devour her first.

“Hey! Blood breath!” Rachel shouts. “Here I am!” 

She stands alone in the middle of the room without any support from her friends. Much to Nebulus’ both satisfaction and remorse, he finds Rachel giving herself away like this is proving to be too easy for him. He trudges slowly towards her not taking his eyes off of her.

“Ah, there you are.” said Nebulus. “I would think you would put in a little more effort in hiding yourself like you have done just now. You must be hiding something from me.”

“What’s there to hide?” asked Rachel. “You know pretty much everything about me to know how to strike a frightening nerve in me.”

“That I do. And yet, you know nothing much about me yourself other than the fact that I appear as some horrific kind of monster, mistaking me for someone else.”

“Someone else? What do you mean?”

“You call me ‘Nebulus,’ correct? Well…” Without warning, Nebulus pounces on top of Rachel, pinning her to the ground like he had done once before and watching Rachel’s shocked expression overwhelm her. “Have I got a surprise for you:” he whispers in her ear saying, “I am not Nebulus.”

“What?” Rachel gasps.

“I am but a mere creature serving the real Nebulus to capture the true Dreamfinder…the TRUE Tomorrow’s Child destined for greatness but endangered to be controlled by my master. So you see, right now you have been barking at the wrong tree and I hate dealing with those who bark at me.”

“No…”

“I warned you to stay out of my way, but it seems you have decided to disobey me. The punishment for defying me and my master is death! And oh, how sweetly delicious of a deadly feast you will be for me.”

“NO! NO!”

Suddenly, at Rachel’s scream, a swiftly flying Algar swoops down and claws the monster at its eyes. The monster screams in pain, letting go of his grip on Rachel as she escapes back into place before she was pinned. But Rachel excitement accelerates as she watches her little gryphon finally flying about to save her. The gryphon flies, spins, leaps, and twirls all over the air, avoiding getting swatted by the monster’s hand. Algar flies back upon Rachel’s shoulders behind her head, giving out a battle cry for victory antagonizing the beast to its annoyance.

“Whoever you are,” Rachel starts, “I’m done falling prey to you. You will NEVER spread fear to anyone so long as I live! You will NEVER take me again!”

“YOU FOOLS!” the beast shouts. “You think you can defeat me? You think you can trap me, deny me my thirst for power and escape my master? My master, Nebulus WILL capture you to his possession, lay waste to all of your worlds and ALL SHALL FALL AND PERISH BEFORE HIM! You…will…DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!”

The monster makes the final charge at Algar and Rachel, attempting for one last chance to consume them both. But before it could even touch them, let alone come one more inch closer, both Rachel and Algar split up aside both sides of the creature’s face to safety, leaving the creature at the mercy of this supposed wall that will smash him…only it won’t. From behind two different piles, both Dreamfinder and Figment spring their heads out and pull away the sheet that Algar had just found that has been disguising the opened door back into the Bewilderness! The monster screams in his defeat as he unintentionally enters his realm again, making a big splash of darkness that only seems to keep connecting itself to it and disappearing from sight.

“Alright! We did it!” Figment cheers. “We got rid of the monster!”

“Yes, we did! We all did…together!” Dreamfinder sighs happily with relief.

“Bark bark bark bark bark!” Algar cheers along as he dancing in circles like he is chasing his tail.

“Wait a minute!” Rachel blurts out. “If this is just a beast, where’s Nebulus?”

“Never mind that!” said Dreamfinder. “We’ve got to—”

But before Dreamfinder could finish his sentence, a large hand as large and widespread as a bed spouts out from the darkness and tries to grab Dreamfinder. Rachel, shocked with a jumpstart instantaneously beating her heart, pushes Dreamfinder out of the way and gets caught the monster instead. The monster swiftly pulls Rachel straight back into the Bewilderness with him, closing the door behind her. All that can be heard from behind the door are Rachel’s screams.

“RACHEL!” Dreamfinder shrieks.

********************************************************************************************************

Inside is all darkness. Everything is black; nothing is alive except for Rachel who had just risked her life to save her friends once again. She squirms to break free, but fails. She is tightly in the monster’s grip helplessly at its mercy and more than likely now to either be eaten or to spend all of eternity in here.

“Let me go!” Rachel screams, struggling to break free.

“Never!” shouted the beast, shapeless in the darkness with only his glowing green eyes and his giant mouth and teeth to show itself with. “If I can’t win, if I can’t live to see another day but fall back into the darkest of abyss of reality, then neither can you!”

“No! Stop!”

“Face it, child! It’s over for you! Your dreams are gone and there is no one to come and save you again! You…are…mine!”

“No! Never!”

Rachel continues to struggle herself free, but it is no use. Her strength is giving out and she is already falling deeper and deeper into the Bewilderness. No Figment of imagination to fill her anymore with his comical humor, no Algar the Gryphon to play with and hold him in her arms again, and no more Dreamfinder to love—…Dreamfinder…Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! Dreamfinder! That is the only name that keeps repeating itself inside Rachel’s mind. What will Dreamfinder do if Rachel is trapped in here? Worse yet, what will Rachel do without Dreamfinder to help her? She violently struggles free at last and up away from the monster’s hand swimming back up to the door and escape. But the monster’s large reaches back up to grab her again in its fists, cackling widely at his catch.

It seems like all is lost forever for Rachel, but as the beast brings his fists closer to his face a sudden beam of light leaks through the small cleavages of his fingers, blinding it to let it go. The monster opens its hands and out comes Rachel…wait. Is it Rachel? It can’t be!

A small but bright figure, a spirit of some kind, femininely built illuminating with a heavenly light, incinerates the darkness around it. Its body is of pure white. Its eyes of a bright yellow twinkling like a million stars compacted into a pair of crystal gems. There isn't a face to describe it; no nose or ears or mouth are shown. No clothing can be seen, but there is no sign of any woman parts that normally remain private. Its long hair lusciously flurries in its aura waving along behind its head like a hundreds strings soaring with the wind. Its fingers are pointed, but there aren’t any toes but tiny points that would only leave a footprint at less than a centimeter in diameter and not make out whether or not it would be here. She is frightening to see, but beautiful in appearance.

The spirit spreads it arms wide out, extending a multiple amount of waves of its light across the realm of the Bewilderness engulfing the monster with it. The monster screams in agony. His body dissolving and eradicating and mutating him into the light that consumes him to where his desperate cries can no longer be heard. The darkness is completely gone and the Bewilderness is no more. But if the Bewilderness is gone, so will the door! The spirit swiftly ascends upward to where the monster had supposedly pulled her through. The door remains, but not for long. It grabs the metal knob on the door and outwardly swings it open.

********************************************************************************************************

From the other side where Dreamfinder, Figment and Algar have been standing there alone in grief of their friend, they cover their eyes at the sudden appearance of the light flashing out of the door before them. The Dreamfinder takes one small peek through his hands, catching a glimpse at what, or who, is coming out of the door.

“Rachel?” Dreamfinder guesses.

Out of the door comes the spirit who has opened it. The door closes behind it and with that bright light, the door disappears for good. The Bewilderness is gone and sealed forever, leaving only the spirit that entered in the presence of the Dreamfinder and his friends. As they open their eyes, another shock bewilders them. The spirit begins to take shape. Its skin returns to a peach colored tone. The brightly illuminating hair returns to a natural bright brown along with the irises of its glistening eyes. Its facial features are forming back again. Her clothes are visible. Her hands and feet are back to normal. Rachel, with her eyes hardly opened due to her sudden lack of strength, she faints right before them and falls to the dusty ground unconscious.

“Rachel!” everyone exclaims.

They all gather around her with Dreamfinder lifting her topside in his arms, astounded by the sight of this sudden transformation.

“Wha-what just happened?” Figment stutters in awe.

“I…I have no idea…” Dreamfinder stammers also.

*********************

End of Part 1 - See Part 2 through this link right here to continue the adventure! ~Wish  
https://archiveofourown.org/works/18145838/chapters/42906902


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